{"id":269176,"date":"2023-11-13T16:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T21:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/ajinomoto-spices-up-its-biopharma-business-with-gene-therapy-deal\/"},"modified":"2023-11-13T17:43:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T22:43:08","slug":"ajinomoto-spices-up-its-biopharma-business-with-gene-therapy-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/ajinomoto-spices-up-its-biopharma-business-with-gene-therapy-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Ajinomoto spices up its biopharma business with gene therapy deal","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ajinomoto-spices-up-its-biopharma-business-with-gene-therapy-deal.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<h3>Dive Brief:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Gene therapy developer and manufacturer Forge Biologics has agreed to be acquired by Ajinomoto Co., <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20231112506083\/en\/Ajinomoto-Co.-Inc.-to-Acquire-Forge-Biologics-for-620-Million1\">the companies announced<\/a> Monday.<\/li>\n<li>The Japanese multinational food and biotechnology company will pay $554 million to Forge shareholders. On a cash-free and debt-free basis, the deal values Forge at $620 million, Ajinomoto said.<\/li>\n<li>Ajinomoto and Forge expect the deal, which is one of the largest gene therapy transactions this year, to close in the fourth quarter of this year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Dive Insight:<\/h3>\n<p>Biotech dealmaking has picked up through the year, with a few gene therapy acquisitions sprinkled in. Last month, Kyowa Kirin <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/orchard-kyowa-kirin-acquire-gene-therapy-libmeldy\/695704\/\">picked up gene therapy developer Orchard Therapeutics <\/a>to get access to its treatment Libmeldy in a $387 million deal. A <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/regeneron-decibel-ear-gene-therapy-acquire-deal\/690376\/\">handful<\/a> of <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/kriya-tramontane-acquire-deal-nash-gene-therapy\/692990\/\">other<\/a> <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/ginkgo-stridebio-gene-therapy-deal-capsids\/646903\/\">gene therapy developers<\/a>, as well as <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/sartorius-polyplus-acquisition-gene-therapy-vectors-manufacturing\/646545\/\">one manufacturer<\/a>,&nbsp;have also been bought by larger drugmakers over the past year.<\/p>\n<p>The deal &#8220;brings &#8230; an entirely new capability&#8221; to Ajinomoto, said the company, which known for its production of frozen foods and seasonings such as MSG, as well as its work with <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/how-an-msg-seasoning-company-became-a-serious-player-in-1849876931\">semiconductors<\/a> and amino acids.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur teams share a commitment to investing in innovation that helps our clients succeed in delivering therapies to patients in need,\u201d Timothy Miller, Forge\u2019s CEO, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Miller <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20200721005169\/en\/Forge-Biologics-Launches-with-40-Million-Series-A-Financing-to-Manufacture-and-Develop-Gene-Therapies\">co-founded Forge in 2020<\/a> with Erandi de Silva and Jaysson Eicholtz and quickly drew several rounds of financing, raising $330 million by the time of its Series C in 2022. Its backers include Perceptive Advisors, RA Capital Management, Drive Capital and Surveyor Capital, a part of Citadel.<\/p>\n<p>Forge currently has one drug in a clinical trial, a gene therapy for a rare neurodegenerative condition called infantile Krabbe disease. The <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/study\/NCT05739643?term=forge%20biologics%20krabbe&amp;rank=2\">Phase 1\/2 study<\/a> is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. A second gene therapy with an undisclosed rare disease target is in preclinical development.<\/p>\n<p>Forge also operates a 200,000-square foot manufacturing facility in Columbus, Ohio, employing over 300 people to develop viral vectors and plasmids. Forge is somewhat unusual in running a CDMO business as well as developing its own therapies.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Garabedian, the chairman of Forge\u2019s board, called the deal a \u201cwin-win transaction\u201d in a LinkedIn post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt a time when Forge was ready to scale their offerings and broaden their client base, Forge found the right partner in Ajinomoto to continue their growth trajectory and meet their long-term objectives,\u201d Garabedian wrote.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"plato-post-bottom-links\">\n<li class=\"plato-post-bottom-link-amplifi\">SEO Powered Content &amp; PR Distribution. <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amplifipr.com\">Get Amplified Today.<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"plato-post-bottom-link-platodata-network\">PlatoData.Network Vertical Generative Ai. Empower Yourself. <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/platodata.network\">Access Here.<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"plato-post-bottom-link-platoaistream\">PlatoAiStream. 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Biotech and Clinical Trials Intelligence. <a href=\"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Access Here.<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"plato-post-bottom-link-source\"><span>Source:<\/span> <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/ajinomoto-forge-biologics-acquire-cdmo-gene-therapy\/699620\/\">https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/ajinomoto-forge-biologics-acquire-cdmo-gene-therapy\/699620\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dive Brief: Gene therapy developer and manufacturer Forge Biologics has agreed to be acquired by Ajinomoto Co., the companies announced Monday. The Japanese multinational food and biotechnology company will pay $554 million to Forge shareholders. On a cash-free and debt-free basis, the deal values Forge at $620 million, Ajinomoto said. Ajinomoto and Forge expect the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":2,"featured_media":269179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"acf":[],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269178,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269176\/revisions\/269178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}