Courier $600 million collaborates to develop dual-resistance therapy, with Boehringer Ingelheim pointing to the main cause of blindness

Surrozen recently announced a licensing agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim to jointly develop its in-research bispecific antibody SZN-413 for the treatment of retinal diseases
.
Under the agreement, Surrozen will be eligible for a milestone payment
of up to $587 million.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a condition in which a patient's retinal membrane is damaged by elevated blood glucose, resulting in fragile and vulnerable microvascular walls, resulting in
blood and fluid leakage into the retina.
This disease is the leading cause
of blindness in middle-aged patients in developed countries.
Diabetic retinopathy may develop into diabetic macular edema (DME) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy, which eventually leads to blindness
.
In patients with these diseases, the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) is damaged, and the loss of retinal microvasculature leads to tissue ischemia, triggering overproduction of many signaling molecules, and ultimately resulting in abnormal angiogenesis and increased vascular leakage on the hypoxic retina
.
Studies have shown that the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, which is transmitted by FZD4 receptors, plays an important role
in normal blood vessel growth in the retina and in maintaining the intact blood-retinal barrier.

SZN-413 is a humanized bispecific antibody developed by Surrozen's proprietary SWAP platform that targets both FZD4 receptor and low-density lipoprotein receptor-associated protein 5 (LRP5) as a novel FZD4 agonist
.
Preclinical data show that SZN-413 can effectively stimulate the activation of Wnt signaling pathway in the eye, thereby promoting normal retinal vascular regeneration, inhibiting pathological vascular growth and reducing vascular leakage
.
Therefore, this therapy not only inhibits retinopathy, but also has the potential to regenerate healthy eye tissue and may reverse the progress of the disease in patients
.

Mr.
Craig Parker, CEO of Surrozen, said: "Surrozen looks forward to a new partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim with which our team and scientists will advance our project
to target FZD4 to activate the Wnt information pathway.
There is a lot of strong genetic and experimental evidence of the importance of this pathway in retinal microvascular function, which we believe will have the potential for clinical translation, and Boehringer Ingelheim is the ideal partner
to bring this potential breakthrough therapy to patients with retinal diseases.
”

Resources:

[1] Surrozen Announces Strategic Partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim to Develop Wnt Agonist SZN-413 for People with Retinal Diseases.
Retrieved October 7, 2022 from https://investors.
surrozen.
com/news-releases/news-release-details/surrozen-announces-strategic-partnership-boehringer-ingelheim

[2] Nguyen, Huy et al.
(2022) SZN-413, a FZD4 Agonist, as a Potential Novel Therapeutic for the Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy.
Translational vision science & technology 11,9: 19.
DOI:10.
1167/tvst.
11.
9.
19

[3] Diabetic retinopathy.
Retrieved October 7, 2022 from WuXi AppTec content team focuses on global biomedical health research advances
.
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.
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