Seelos Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: SEEL) is up more than 6% early on in the trading session this morning after announcing that it has acquired a new asset. The company said that it acquired the exclusive worldwide license to a gene therapy product. Here’s what’s happening:
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SEEL Announces Asset Acquisition
In a press release issued during premarket hours on Thursday, Seelos Therapeutics said that it has acquired a new gene therapy asset. The asset is an exclusive worldwide license to a gene therapy candidate that was acquired from Duke University.
In the release, SEEL said that the gene therapy program targets the regulation of the SNCA gene,a geen known to encode alpha-synuclein expression. The company intends on studying this new approach as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s Disease.
The new asset, dubbed SLS-004 is hoped to become the first effective option to prevent or halt the progression of Parkinson’s disease. In fact, the SNCA gene is known to be a significant risk factor for the disease.
Moreover, evidence currently suggests that elevated levels of wild-type-alpha-synuclein are a causative factor in the pathogenesis of the disease. In fact, SNCA overexpression and the need to maintain normal physiological levels of alpha-synuclein protein are believed to be a major factor in the disease.
As such, SLS-004 is expected to target the regulatory mechanisms of SNCA expression, which could result in the candidate being the first to fill the unmet need of therapeutic strategies to combat PD.
In a statement, Tim Whitaker, MD, Head of R&D at SEEL, had the following to offer:
The down regulation of SNCA overexpression, through one-shot epigenetic editing tool such as SLS-004, is a promising therapeutic approach, as it has shown reversal of the disease-related phenotypes preclinically.
The Market Potential Here Is Incredible
Parkinson’s disease a severely debilitating condition that is experienced by more than 10 million people around the world. With no effective options for the prevention or treatment of the disease, bringing one to market represents an incredible opportunity, should SLS-004 prove to be effective.
While there are no effective options to reverse or prevent the condition, treatment of Parkinson’s disease is big business. In fact, experts at Transparency Market Research suggest that the market could be worth more than $5 billion by the year 2025.
Considering that SEEL currently has a market cap of under $50 million, tapping into a small portion of the market potential in Parkinson’s Disease could drive tremendous value for investors.
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