Sue Washer is the President and CEO of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation, or AGTC. Ms. Washer is an experienced entrepreneur with an impressive career over the past 32 years, with diverse experiences in the pharmaceutical/biologics industry, including extensive corporate startup experience, research and development expertise as well as significant community and industry association leadership. As founding CEO, Ms. Washer has led AGTC for 17 years, transforming it from a small academic spin-out to a leader in the field with five products in active development. Ms. Washer led AGTC’s successful IPO and secondary financing, raising more than $90 million from public investors; secured investments of more than $91 million from nationally recognized venture capitalists and granting agencies; negotiated and closed on a major collaboration with a top-five biotech company; negotiated numerous licensing deals with academic, governmental and commercial entities; led the company in efficiently completing critical milestones, including five INDs and three early-stage clinical trials; and recruited an experienced management team. Most recently, Ms. Washer led the negotiations with Biogen, resulting in a wide-ranging partnership deal with a $124 million upfront payment.
In this exclusive interview with the Wall Street Transcript, Sue Washer details her strategic plans for AGTC and gets specific about the financial returns.
“…Since we last spoke, we have three other products that have moved into the clinic for testing. Two are around achromatopsia, which is another genetic disease that affects vision loss, and then, one is around X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, which is one form of retinitis pigmentosa, one of the largest orphan indications in ophthalmology. We are working on a select subset of that patient population and will start dosing patients in that trial soon. So lots of progress is being made with four products in the clinic.”
Ms. Washer has put into place some strategic partnerships, including a significant infusion of capital from Biogen (BIIB).
“We have licensed to them both the XLRS and the XLRP program and have disclosed that that license involved an upfront payment as well as a total of a potential of $490 million in development, regulatory as well as commercial milestones. For XLRS, there are low-double-digit royalties, and for XLRP, high-single-digit to low-double-digit royalties.”
Read the entire interview in the Wall Street Transcript and get the full detail straight from Sue Washer, President and CEO of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC).
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