Earlier Rumor Circulating That Decibel Therapeutics May Be A Take Over Target After Eli Lilly Announced The Acquisition Of Akouos
Therapeutic Decibel (NASDAQ:DBTX), which focuses on treatments for hearing loss, is up to 25% in the Tuesday morning exchanges after Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) announced that it would acquire hearing therapy company Akouos (NASDAQ:AKUS).
One of Decibel (DBTX) the most anticipated program is DB-OTO, a gene therapy designed to restore hearing in people born with significant hearing loss due to a mutation in the OTOF gene. On Monday, the US FDA authorized an IND request to start a phase 1/2 trial.
The candidate is the first developed in a collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) which was signed in 2017 and extended last year.
This partnership assumes Decibel could be a take-home target. Baird analyst Jack Allan noted that Akouuous’s (AKUS) otology treatment pipeline is similar to those being developed by Decibel (DBTX).
“Moving forward, with Decibel having already produced strong data on its DB-020 otoprotective therapy, and with DB-OTO (otoferlin gene therapy) expected to enter the clinic in the coming months, we believe ‘there is potential for Regeneron (REGN) or another large biotech/pharmaceutical player to seek to acquire Decibel in the coming months,’ Allan wrote.
DB-020 is in Stage 1b for cisplatin-induced hearing loss.
Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating considers Decibel (DBTX) as a reserve.