uniQure makes milestone payment to Xenon for European approval of Glybera

The adeno-associated virus based human gene therapy Glybera developed by uniQure is indicated for the orphan disease lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD).

Xenon president and CEO Simon Pimstone said, "Xenon was founded with a commitment to advancing human genetic discoveries into novel therapies for difficult to treat orphan diseases and Glybera is the first product to be marketed by one of our licensees."

Glybera, which contains Xenon’s LPLS447X technology, was shown in clinical studies to effectively reduce blood fat levels and pancreatitis episodes in LPLD patients.

According to the licensing deal previously signed between the organizations for LPLS447X genetic variant, Xenon is also eligible for sales based royalty payments of Glybera.

Glybera is anticipated to be available in Europe in 2013.