Press Release
August 2, 2021

Exicure Collaborates with Ipsen on Treatment For Rare Neurodegenerative Disorders, Exicure to Receive $20 Million Upfront and Up to $1 Billion in Milestone Payments

The Life Sciences team advised Exicure (NASDAQ: XCUR) in its exclusive collaboration agreement with Ipsen (Euronext: IPN; ADR: IPSEY) to research, develop, and commercialize novel Spherical Nucleic Acids (SNAs) as potential investigational treatments for Huntington’s disease and Angelman syndrome.

Under the agreement, Ipsen will receive exclusive options to license SNA-based therapeutics arising from two collaboration programs for Huntington’s disease and Angelman syndrome. Ipsen will pay Exicure a cash upfront payment of $20 million upon closing and Exicure will be responsible for discovery and certain pre-clinical development activities. In the event Ipsen exercises its option, Ipsen will be responsible for further development and commercialization of the licensed products. Exicure will receive a $20 million upfront payment and is eligible to receive up to $1 billion in option exercise fees and milestone payments should Ipsen opt into both programs, as well as tiered royalties.

Based in Chicago, IL and in Cambridge, MA, Exicure is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing therapeutics for neurology, immuno-oncology, inflammatory diseases, and other genetic disorders based on its proprietary Spherical Nucleic Acid, or SNA technology.

The Goodwin team was led by Can Cui and included Kingsley Taft, Daniel Karelitz and Paul Jin, with support from Paresh Kumar.

For additional details on the agreement, please read the press release and coverage in FierceBiotech, PharmaLive, Seeking Alpha and TheStreet.com.