BioCardia, Inc. announced it has signed an extension to a 2017 development agreement with AstraZeneca for BioCardia’s Helix biotherapeutic delivery catheter system.
Under the terms of the initial pre-clinical phase of the relationship, BioCardia will receive a sizable upfront payment, a portion of which will be creditable to BioCardia biotherapeutic delivery systems, support and training. The agreement is exclusive with respect to a class of biotherapeutic agents that BioCardia is not currently developing on its own or with any other party and is time limited.
“We are delighted to continue our collaboration with AstraZeneca, a world-class therapeutics leader,” said BioCardia CEO Peter Altman, PhD. “As we advance our own CardiAMP cell therapy clinical programs that benefit from delivery with our Helix system, BioCardia is also leveraging its technology to make significant contributions to therapeutics development by others.”
The Helix Biotherapeutic Delivery System has been chosen for use in a total of 12 cell and gene therapy trials to date, nine of which are outside of the company. In September 2018, a presentation of the clinical safety experience of the Helix system used in 300 procedures showed that it presents the lowest risk to patients for cell and gene delivery to the heart, when compared to all other delivery systems in the scientific literature for which data is available.