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Lilly, Astellas circle Sangamo assets as biotech files for bankruptcy
BioSpace • • business
Key Points:
- Sangamo Therapeutics is laying off 51 employees, about 40% of its workforce, as it files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and prepares to sell its assets in a court-supervised reorganization.
- The biotech is selling key assets to pharmaceutical companies Lilly and Astellas, with Lilly bidding for capsid delivery, zinc finger, and modular integrase platforms, and Astellas acquiring a pivotal-stage gene therapy for Fabry disease.
- Lilly is also purchasing Sangamo’s prion disease program ST-506, while another asset, the hemophilia A gene therapy giroctocogene fitelparvovec, is expected to be sold separately following Pfizer’s termination of a licensing deal.
- Sangamo began a rolling submission for FDA approval of its Fabry disease gene therapy in December 2025, aiming for accelerated approval, and had previously entered into a significant licensing deal with Lilly in April 2024.
- The bankruptcy filing and asset sales follow Sangamo’s recent strategic review and search for alternatives, with CEO Sandy Macrae emphasizing the process as a means to maximize value for stakeholders.
