You may have heard me talking about Inozyme before, a tiny pharma company that has been working on a treatment for an ultra-rare segment of the chronic hypophosphatemia community, patients with an ENPP1 deficiency (rather than an excess of FGF23) that causes their phosphate wasting. Inozyme developed an enzyme replacement treatment, and undertook the supporting background work (establishing a natural history study to better understand the risks and benefits) and did the initial clinical trials, with promising results.
Inozyme is a relatively new pharmaceutical company, with a very narrow focus, and it appears that their quick (in science terms; years instead of decades) success caught the attention of a larger pharmaceutical company, BioMarin, which has recently entered into a contract to purchase Inozyme, to be completed over the summer. You can read about the deal here.
I don’t know much about BioMarin, but it appears that they have experience with bringing enzyme-based treatments (like the one for ENPP1) to market, so they may be better suited to take this new treatment through the FDA approval process and to market, something that Inozyme has never done before. Fingers crossed that this acquisition will indeed be beneficial to patients and not just to stockholders!
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Please note that the author is a well-read patient, not a doctor, and is not offering medical or legal advice.
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