As we discussed in our November 16, 2015 article on this blog, Spark Therapeutics (Philadelphia, PA) recently announced positive top-line results from the Phase 3 pivotal trial of SPK-RPE65, a gene therapy for treatment of inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) caused by mutations in the gene for RPE65.  At a later scientific meeting, the company presented data that showed that SPK-RPE65 gave durable improvements in vision over a three-year period.

SPK-RPE65 is the most advanced gene therapy in development for retinal disease of any company, as discussed in our November 2015 book-length gene therapy report, Gene Therapy: Moving Toward Commercialization, published by Cambridge Healthtech Institute. Our report includes detailed discussions of SPK-RPE65, Spark Therapeutics, and other companies developing gene therapies for ophthalmologic diseases.

Now comes a recent online article in “Seeking Alpha” by ONeil Trader, which discusses Spark’s commercialization plans for SPK-RPE65, based on the positive Phase 3 results. Spark is planning to file a Biologics License Application (BLA) for SPK-RPE65 in 2016, as also stated on the company’s website. According to the “Seeking Alpha” article, SPK-RPE65 should reach the U.S. market in 2017, and should be the first FDA-approved gene therapy product in the United States.

The “Seeking Alpha” article also gives a projected range of peak sales for SPK-RPE65: from $350 million to $900 million. The article also reminds investors (the primary audience of “Seeking Alpha”) that Spark has a rich pipeline beyond SPK-RPE65. We have discussed the two clinical stage products mentioned by “Seeking Alpha”—SPK-CHM for the IRD choroideremia and SPK-FIX for hemophilia B (partnered with Pfizer) in our report. We have also discussed Spark’s first neurodegenerative disease gene therapy, SPK-TPP1 for Batten disease, in the December 7, 2015 article on this blog.

Might other gene therapies reach the U.S. market in 2017?

The “Seeking Alpha” article predicts that SPK-RPE65 will be the first gene therapy to reach the US. market, in 2017. However, there are several other gene therapies discussed in our report that might also reach the U.S. market by 2017, perhaps beating SPK-RPE65 for the honor of being first-to-U.S.-market.

Despite its already being approved in Europe, uniQure’s Glybera, the “first commercially available gene therapy”, will not be the first to reach the U.S. market. That is because uniQure has dropped plans to seek FDA approval for Glybera.

As discussed in our gene therapy report, the products most likely to reach the U.S. market at the same time or before SPK-RPE65 are all CD19-targeting CAR T-cell therapies for treatment of various B-cell leukemias and lymphomas. These products include Novartis/Penn’s CTL019, Juno’s JCAR015, and Kite’s KTE-C19. At least as a “stretch goal”, CTL019 might even reach the U.S. market for treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in 2016. In addition to these products, our report includes discussions of other gene therapies that might reach the U.S. and/or European market before 2020, and achieve revenues equal to or greater than those projected for SPK-RPE65.

Importantly, none of these other products will compete with SPK-RPE65, except for the honor of being “the first gene therapy to reach the U.S. market”. And the prospect of several gene therapy products reaching the U.S. and/or European market before 2020 suggests that gene therapy is moving beyond the “premature technology” stage, and into commercial success.

As the producers of this blog, and as consultants to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, Haberman Associates would like to hear from you. If you are in a biotech or pharmaceutical company, and would like a 15-20-minute, no-obligation telephone discussion of issues raised by this or other blog articles, or of other issues that are important to your company, please contact us by phone or e-mail. We also welcome your comments on this or any other article on this blog.