Korro Bio and Frequency Therapeutics have completed a previously announced business combination.
The new company continues with the Korro Bio name and will start trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol ‘KRRO’ upon market opening on 6 November.
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Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Korro launches with $170m in post-transaction cash, expected to fuel operations into 2026, according to a 3 November press release.
In July 2023, the two companies announced they had agreed to merge into a new genetic medicines business. The merged business would not only retain Korro Bio’s name but also remain focused on advancing the company’s RNA editing programmes.
Frequency Therapeutics faced a difficult final year before the merger. The company’s candidate for hearing loss treatment – FX-322 – failed a Phase II trial in February 2023. This also led to the shelving of its other hearing loss candidate, FX-345, and the layoff of around 55% of its entire workforce.
The newly merged Korro will focus on its RNA editing platform, stating that it currently has six potential programmes that either correct a mutation or explore de novo protein variants to treat a disease. The platform uses engineered oligonucleotides to introduce edits to RNA.
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By GlobalDataKorro’s lead product is a candidate for the autosomal recessive disorder Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). The company aims to progress its asset through clinical trials after it demonstrated positive in vivo preclinical data.
Korro CEO Ram Aiyar said: “We have a deep pipeline with multiple high-value targets, with an initial focus on progressing the lead product candidate in AATD into the clinic. We intend to leverage our learnings from genetics and pharmacology to bring groundbreaking therapeutic options for patients based on generating de novo single nucleotide variants.
Cell & Gene Therapy coverage on Pharmaceutical Technology is supported by Cytiva.
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