Form Bio and Ginkgo Partner to Develop Industry-Leading Solutions for AAV Gene Therapy Design and Development

Combined Solution Set Addresses Critical Hurdles in Bringing Gene Therapy Products to IND

DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2024 / Form Bio, the breakthrough computational life sciences solutions provider, and Ginkgo Bioworks, which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, today announced a new partnership to provide a complete and holistic solution offering for AAV gene therapy design and development. The combined offering marries the power of Ginkgo's licensable assets, cell lines and foundry capabilities with Form's award-winning in silico solutions for characterization, simulation and AI-enabled construct design optimization.

The new, combined solution provides one-stop shopping for gene therapy developers looking to optimize their products while reducing time-to-clinic and conserving capital. With the new end-to-end capabilities, gene therapy developers now have a new way to reduce time and development costs while developing products that aim to achieve safer, more effective and more scalable outcomes.

"We are now seeing that AI can reduce preclinical development time by over 30 percent, offering the potential to get life-saving treatments to patients faster and at lower costs," said Kent Wakeford, co-founder and co-chief executive officer for Form Bio. "By combining AI and integrated manufacturing modeling with Ginkgo's industry-leading AAV products and services, our clients can get virtually everything they need for accelerated AAV therapeutic development in one integrated solution," he added.

Ginkgo's existing suite of capabilities for gene therapy include licensable capsid assets, capsid engineering services, payload engineering and manufacturing optimization services, while Form Bio provides highly complementary in silico solutions ranging from product characterization to immunotoxicity analysis to gene expression prediction and AI-based construct design optimization.

"We're very excited to have Form Bio as an inaugural partner in our Technology Network. Form Bio is a pioneer in applying AI and innovative in silico techniques to AAV development, transforming how gene therapies are developed," said Jason Kelly, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ginkgo Bioworks. "We are excited by the value that this collaboration will provide to our customers, who are looking for ways to leverage the advances in generative AI in a fully integrated manner," he added.

The two companies are teaming on gene therapy specifically today, although both offer broad capabilities across nucleic acids, delivery platforms and therapeutic modalities.

There are more than 2,000 gene therapies currently in development according to ASGCT and Citeline's Gene, Cell, + RNA Therapy Landscape Report for Q4 2023. But there are significant challenges involved in designing therapeutic products that are simultaneously safe enough, effective enough and manufacturable enough to reach the clinic and the patients afflicted by targeted indications.

About Form Bio

Form Bio provides award-winning software and AI solutions for cell and gene therapy leaders. By combining data, technology and expertise, Form's solutions accelerate timelines from discovery to clinic by providing drug developers with rapid in silico characterization, prediction, simulation and optimization of their therapeutics - enabling higher yields, enhanced safety and shorter, less-expensive development cycles. With cross-disciplinary expertise spanning software engineering, biology, bioinformatics and data science, the Form Bio team collaborates closely with customers on their most pressing and strategic challenges and opportunities. For more information, visit www.formbio.com or follow the company at https://www.linkedin.com/company/formbio.

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty chemicals. Ginkgo's biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for biosecurity to empower governments, communities, and public health leaders to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com and concentricbyginkgo.com, read our blog or follow us on social media channels such as X (formerly known as Twitter) (@Ginkgo and @ConcentricByGBW), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks), Threads (@GinkgoBioworks) or LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the capabilities and potential success of the Technology Partnership and Ginkgo's cell programming platform. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, and changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business, (ii) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and to identify and realize additional business opportunities, (iii) the risk of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology, (iv) the uncertainty regarding the demand for passive monitoring programs and biosecurity services, (v) changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to advancements in technology, emerging competition and evolution in industry demands, standards and regulations, (vi) our ability to realize the expected benefits of merger and acquisition transactions, (vii) the outcome of any legal proceedings against Ginkgo, including as a result of recent acquisitions, (viii) our ability to realize the expected benefits from and the success of our Foundry platform programs, (ix) our ability to successfully develop engineered cells, bioprocesses, data packages or other deliverables, and (x) the product development or commercialization success of our customers. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on November 8, 2023, and other documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

Contact Information

Angela Anderson
Form Bio
angela@formbio.com

Jake Robison
Inizio Evoke Comms
jake.robison@inizioevoke.com

SOURCE: Form Bio

View the original press release on newswire.com.