Vivet Therapeutics (“Vivet”), a privately-held gene therapy biotech company dedicated to developing treatments for inherited liver disorders with a high unmet medical need, and Pfizer Inc. announced today that they have entered into a manufacturing agreement, under which Pfizer will provide clinical supply for a Phase 1/2 clinical trial evaluating Vivet’s proprietary, investigational gene therapy, VTX-801, for the potential treatment of Wilson disease, a rare and potentially life-threatening liver disorder. The trial is expected to commence in early 2021. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

In March 2019, the companies announced that Pfizer had acquired a minority equity interest in Vivet and secured an exclusive option to acquire all outstanding shares. The companies also announced that they would collaborate on the development of VTX-801, for which an Investigational New Drug (IND) application is planned to be filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2020.

“The manufacture of potentially transformative gene therapy technologies is an incredibly complex undertaking, and we are hopeful that this key milestone further strengthens our relationship with Pfizer while ensuring the long-term development of VTX-801,” said Jean-Philippe Combal, Co-Founder & CEO of Vivet Therapeutics.

The Phase 1/2 clinical supply for VTX-801 will be manufactured in Pfizer’s facility in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In recent years, Pfizer has made significant investments in the company’s gene therapy manufacturing facilities in North Carolina to strengthen its ability to produce both clinical and commercial-scale quantities of gene therapies for patients living with rare diseases around the world.

“We are proud of the significant progress made to date in our gene therapy manufacturing capabilities, and this milestone in our relationship with Vivet underscores the importance of our strategic investments in end-to-end gene therapy research and supply, to support the timely delivery of these important new therapies for patients,” said Seng Cheng, Chief Scientific Officer, Rare Disease Research Unit, Pfizer.