NEW YORK & TEL AVIV, Israel & OSAKA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- EmendoBio Inc., a leader in next-generation novel nuclease discovery and gene editing technologies, today announced that AnGes, Inc.., a commercial stage Japanese biopharmaceutical company focused on gene-based medicines, has completed the acquisition of EmendoBio at a valuation of US $250 million. EmendoBio is now an independent wholly-owned subsidiary of AnGes, and will continue to maintain its business operations at its facilities in New York, NY and Tel Aviv, Israel. The acquisition was completed on December 15, 2020.

David Baram, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of EmendoBio, commented, “This transaction underscores the potential of EmendoBio’s novel technology platforms, the promise of our product candidates, and the value that our employees, strategic partners and founding investors, OrbiMed and Takeda Ventures, Inc. have created within the company. The alliance with AnGes brings new resources and synergies to our operations that will accelerate product development, partnerships and commercial opportunities in the years ahead.”

“We are extremely proud of the EmendoBio team and its work to develop proprietary technology platforms to enable high precision gene editing throughout the genome,” said Carl Gordon, Managing Partner and Co-Head of Global Private Equity at OrbiMed. “This alignment with AnGes builds on an already strong foundation to accelerate research and development of a broad therapeutic pipeline to address many devastating diseases.”

Ei Yamada, President and CEO of AnGes, Inc., remarked, “The acquisition of EmendoBio represents a key step in AnGes’ strategy to focus on innovative medicines for diseases with high unmet medical needs by identifying unique combinations of genetic medicines and therapeutic modalities based on cutting edge science. This transaction positions AnGes to expand its pipeline and partnerships and introduce gene editing capabilities by leveraging EmendoBio’s proprietary platforms, team of seasoned scientists and researchers and its valued relationships with academic collaborators and scientific advisors.”

“This acquisition brings together innovation leaders in genetic medicine to both accelerate promising research and expand global reach to address significant areas of unmet need in healthcare,” said Rob Woodman, Ph.D., Senior Partner at Takeda Ventures, Inc. “As a founding investor of EmendoBio, we look forward to EmendoBio and AnGes achieving new levels of momentum in the years ahead.”

EmendoBio is pioneering its OMNI™ technologies, a next-generation novel nuclease discovery platform and a nuclease optimization platform that incorporates sophisticated protein engineering and directed evolution capabilities. EmendoBio is leveraging these platform technologies to expand opportunities in genome-editing based drug development, by engineering high precision editing, including allele-specific editing, while maintaining high efficiencies. EmendoBio’s unique approach transforms the landscape of genetic medicine by enabling previously undemonstrated levels of precision gene editing and target specific optimization to make any gene targetable, unlocking a way to treat a broad range of genetic diseases including many previously considered untreatable.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP served as legal counsel to EmendoBio.

About EmendoBio

EmendoBio is a next generation CRISPR gene editing company leveraging dual proprietary technology platforms to enable high precision gene editing throughout the genome. EmendoBio’s novel nuclease discovery platform broadens the targetable range of the genome while its target-specific optimization platform enables highly precise editing, including allele specific editing, while maintaining high efficiencies. The capabilities of the OMNI technology platforms, along with deep expertise in genomic medicine, protein engineering and therapeutic development, provide EmendoBio with a unique advantage when addressing indications within hematology, oncology, ophthalmology and other disease areas. For more information please visit us at www.emendobio.com.

About AnGes

AnGes, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company founded in December 1999 focuses on the development of gene-based medicines. In March 2019, AnGes obtained conditional and time-limited approval for its lead product, Collategene® (Hepatocyte Growth Factor, HGF, plasmid gene therapy), for the treatment of Lower Limb Ischemic Ulcers. In September 2019, AnGes commenced the commercialization in Japan of Collategene®. Collategene® is the world’s first marketed drug using Plasmid DNA. AnGes is currently focusing on the development of DNA vaccines for COVID-19 and Hypertension, Tie2 tyrosine kinase receptor agonist for COVID-19 treatment, and NF-κB decoy oligonucleotide for Chronic Discogenic Lumbar Back Pain. Furthermore, AnGes acquired EmendoBio to expand its capabilities in Genome Editing Technologies in December 2020. For more information, visit https://www.anges.co.jp/en/

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