uniQure N.V., a gene therapy company, has closed the sale of its global manufacturing facility in Lexington, Massachusetts to Genezen, a contract development and manufacturing organization specializing in the supply of retroviral vectors, lentiviral vectors, and adeno-associated virus (AAV) technologies.

“With the completion of the divestiture, we take an important step toward achieving our goal of significantly reducing expenses and streamlining operations,” stated Matt Kapusta, CEO of uniQure. “Additionally, this transaction provides uniQure continued and preferred access to world-class gene therapy manufacturing capabilities to advance our gene therapy product candidates and enables us to focus our future investments on projects that have the potential to meaningfully increase shareholder value. We remain committed to identifying further cost reduction opportunities and anticipate announcing additional progress later this quarter.”

uniQure and Genezen expect a seamless transition, with nearly all employees who were offered employment successfully joining Genezen. As a result of the transaction, uniQure becomes a meaningful shareholder of Genezen and Mr. Kapusta has joined Genezen’s Board of Directors. uniQure expects immediate reductions in future recurring cash burn of approximately $40 million per year, which includes interest expense savings from the retirement of $50 million in outstanding debt.

With the transaction now complete, Amin Abujoub, Ph.D. who currently serves as Chief Quality Officer has been appointed to the new role of Chief Technical Operations Officer and will be responsible for global oversight of contract manufacturers, including Genezen, as well as internal operations, facilities, process and analytical development, and quality. As a result of the divestiture, the Chief Operating Officer role was eliminated, and Pierre Caloz will depart the company, continuing to lend his expertise in an advisory capacity.