BioCapital Europe Company of the Year award goes to Prosensa
Amsterdam, March 26, 2015. At the BioCapital Europe conference being held today in Amsterdam, Hans Schikan, CEO Prosensa, was presented with the BioCapital Company of the Year award by Martijn Kleijwegt, Managing Partner at LSP. Investors and industry executives voted for Prosensa to receive this award. Prosensa’s lead program focuses on the development of novel innovative treatments for a rare genetic condition, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).
2014 was a truly transformational year for Prosensa. At the start of the year, the company had disappointing results from a large clinical study with its lead drug drisapersen and their partner GSK handed back the rights. By the end of 2014, Prosensa had re-analyzed the drisapersen data and additional clinical data to convince regulators that boys with DMD do benefit from treatment with drisapersen. They also attracted a buyout offer from orphan disease specialist BioMarin of up to $840 million. BioMarin is now committed to obtaining approval to launch drisapersen and make this revolutionary new treatment for DMD available for these boys as soon as possible.
LSP has supported Prosensa through all stages of the company’s development and is proud to present this award for outstanding achievement which brings new hope to patients.
About Prosensa
Prosensa is a biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of RNA-modulating therapeutics for the treatment of genetic disorders. Its primary focus is on rare neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disorders with a large unmet medical need, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Myotonic Dystrophy and Huntington's disease.
At the time of the acquisition, the Prosensa portfolio included six compounds for the treatment of DMD, all of which have received orphan drug status in the United States and the European Union. The compounds use an innovative technique called exon-skipping to provide a personalized medicine approach to treat different populations of DMD patients. For more information, please visit prosensa.com
About DMD
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common fatal genetic disorder diagnosed in childhood, affecting approximately up to 1 in 3,500 live male births. DMD is caused by mutations in the gene that encodes for dystrophin, a protein that is important for muscle function. Patients suffer from progressive loss of muscle function, often making them wheelchair bound before the age of 12. Respiratory and cardiac muscle can also be affected by the disease. Few patients survive the age of 30. There is currently no cure for DMD.
About LSP
LSP (Life Sciences Partners) is a leading independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life-science companies. Since the late 1980s, LSP’s management has invested in a large number of highly innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life-science industry. With over USD 1 billion of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is one of Europe’s largest and most experienced specialist life-science investors. For more information, please visit lspvc.com.
For more information, please contact:
Geraldine O'Keeffe
Partner
+31 20 6645500
gokeeffe@lspvc.com