Vertex will pay $25 million upfront for TreeFrog Therapeutics’ cell manufacturing technology that can help boost production of its early-phase type 1 diabetes assets.
In exchange for an exclusive license for the cell production tech, dubbed C-Stem, TreeFrog would also receive an equity investment from Vertex and up to $215 million in milestone payments, depending on how successful the tech is in scaling up fully differentiated pancreatic islet cells that can produce insulin.
TreeFrog could also receive a further $540 million in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones that covers two of Vertex’s cell therapy candidates, as well as tiered single-digit royalties. Vertex will keep development and commercialization duties for the two assets, according to a Tuesday press release.
Vertex has two islet cell therapies in its pipeline. The first, named VX-880, is in a Phase 1/2 trial: Vertex paused the study in January after two patient deaths were reported, which the company said at the time were unrelated to the investigational therapy. The second candidate, named VX-264, is also in a Phase 1/2 trial with a primary completion date of May 2026, per ClinicalTrials.gov.
Morrey AtkinsonTreeFrog’s C-Stem is a closed system that replicates the ideal environment in which cells can grow, which can then lead to large amounts of fully differentiated cells. The platform can produce as much as 15 billion cells in a single run, TreeFrog’s website says.
“Our goal is to transform the treatment of T1D, and our stem cell-derived, fully differentiated islet cell VX-880 Ph 1/2 program has demonstrated this potential,” Vertex chief technical operations officer Morrey Atkinson said in a statement.