Astellas Expands Its Eye Disorder Pipeline with Quethera Purchase

Astellas Pharma said today it has acquired Quethera, a developer of gene therapies for eye disorders, for up to £85 million ($108.5 million), in a deal that expands the buyer’s efforts to build a pipeline of treatments for ocular disorders.Based in Cambridge, U.K., Quethera has developed an ophthalmic gene therapy program designed to treat glaucoma and other conditions affecting the optic nerve. The program uses a recombinant adeno-associated viral vector system (rAAV) designed to in