Rejuvenate Bio partners with Merck Animal Health to accelerate long-acting canine gene therapies

Rejuvenate Bio expands its veterinary pipeline through a strategic collaboration with Merck Animal Health and secures $6 million in financing, aiming to develop sustained genetic treatments for canine diseases such as mitral valve disorder and osteoarthritis.

Rejuvenate Bio has deepened its push into veterinary gene therapy with a new research and development collaboration with Merck Animal Health, alongside $6 million in fresh financing, according to company statements. For clinicians, the key point is that the San Diego-based biotech is trying to move beyond chronic symptom control and towards long-acting genetic treatments for serious canine disease.

The company says its programmes are aimed at age-related and chronic conditions, including mitral valve disease and osteoarthritis in dogs. Its lead animal-health work uses adeno-associated virus delivery to drive sustained production of beneficial proteins such as FGF21, while its earlier canine mitral valve disease work included a gene therapy candidate designed to modulate heart-remodelling pathways. Rejuvenate has also disclosed a previous commercial partnership with Phibro Animal Health for canine mitral valve disease and another alliance focused on canine osteoarthritis, a condition the company says affects more than 40% of dogs.

Chief executive Dan Oliver has argued that developing in animals and humans in parallel could improve manufacturing and de-risk the platform. Rejuvenate says Merck Animal Health is both an investor and a strategic collaborator, although the two companies have not publicly disclosed which programme they will co-develop. The company, a spin-out from Harvard-linked research, says the animal-health work is now its priority and could help support broader human gene therapy ambitions.

Image Source: Rejuvenate Bio