SIRION will use the funds recently received from licensees for further expansion abroad, for new technical developments and for the establishment of additional competences from the outside. The company is represented in Paris since September 2019, in order to serve the rapidly growing gene therapy market in France. Coming January, Boston, one of the biggest global hotspots for gene and cell therapies, will be added as a location.
SIRION is active in gene therapy and immuno-oncology and is dedicated to highly complex vectors or “gene ferries” with which a genetic “charge” is brought into a patient’s cells, exploiting the same mechanisms, that are originally observed in viral infections. Almost exactly ten years after its foundation, the first patient was treated with SIRION technology in a clinical phase III in December 2016. The company with its approximately 30 employees received a first milestone payment in the single-digit million range. Based on promising patient data, the clinical development partner in the USA expects an approval in Europe in 2019.
A second clinical program entered Phase I in May 2018, an important milestone for SIRION. License agreements have already been concluded with four other clinical development partners. The first patients and test persons will be treated shortly. Two to three additional development and licensing collaborations are expected to be completed by the end of 2018.