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Company type | Public |
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Nasdaq:
ADVM Russell 2000 Component | |
Industry |
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Founded | 2006 |
Founders |
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Headquarters | Redwood City, California |
Key people | |
Number of employees | 100 |
Website |
adverum |
Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc., formerly known as Avalanche Biotechnologies, [2] is a publicly traded [3] clinical stage gene therapy company located in Redwood City, California. [4] The company is targeting unmet medical needs for serious ocular and rare diseases, including wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD). [5]
Avalanche Biotechnologies was founded in 2006 by Tom Chalberg, Mark Blumenkranz, Mitchell Finer, and Steven Schwartz.[ citation needed] Avalanche went public through an IPO in 2014, raising $102 million. [6]
In 2015, co-founder Tom Chalberg stepped down as CEO following Phase IIa trial results that were labeled as "iffy". [7]
In May 2016, Avalanche acquired Annapurna Therapeutics and changed its name to Adverum Biotechnologies. [8] It also changed its ticker symbol on the Nasdaq exchange from AAVL to ADVM. [8] In October 2016, former Annapurna Therapeutics CEO Amber Salzman became CEO of Adverum. [9]
In May 2018, CEO Amber Salzman left Adverum, and Chief Medical Officer Athena Countouriotis resigned after less than one year in the job. [10] In October 2018, Leone Patterson was named the new CEO of Adverum. [11]
In September 2019, Adverum announced six-month data from the first cohort of its phase I trial. [12] The stock price dropped 50% due to investor concerns over deterioration of vision that these trial subjects suffered, as well as several reports of occular inflammation. [12]
In June 2020, Laurent Fischer replaced Patterson as CEO of Adverum. [13]
In January 2022, the FDA granted Orphan Drug Designation to Adverum's ADVM-062, developed as a single intravitreal administration for blue-cone monochromacy by delivering a functional copy of the OPN1LW gene. [14]
In September 2022, Adverum announced that its first patient was dosed in the LUNA phase 2 clinical trial; the trial evaluates development for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration. [15] [16]