SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K, or Annual Report, contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. We make such forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy, development plans, planned preclinical studies and clinical trials, future results of clinical trials, expected research and development costs, regulatory strategy, timing and likelihood of success, as well as plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “estimate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions intended to identify statements about the future. Forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report include, without limitation, statements about:
We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about our business, the industry in which we operate and financial trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, and these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or development. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions described in the section titled “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report. Because forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified and some of which are beyond our control, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this Annual Report, the events and circumstances reflected in our forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and you are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
We are a clinical stage genetic medicine company dedicated to transforming healthcare by applying pioneering science to fundamentally change how disease is treated. By taking aim at the underlying genetic cause of the devastating diseases we target, we seek to create substantial positive impact and reduce the overwhelming burdens placed on people receiving treatment, their caregivers, and healthcare systems. Our current pipeline consists of candidates targeting patient populations that place significant burden on society and are most amenable to our genetic medicine approach.
Our most advanced cardiovascular product candidate, LX2006 for the treatment of patients with Friedreich’s ataxia, or FA, cardiomyopathy, is currently being evaluated in SUNRISE-FA, an ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial. We have observed an increase in frataxin protein expression in the hearts of three patients that have undergone cardiac biopsies across cohort 1 (n=1) and cohort 2 (n=2), and we expect to report additional interim data from this trial in mid-2024. Our second most advanced cardiovascular product candidate, LX2020 for the treatment of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, or ACM, caused by mutations in the PKP2 gene, referred to as PKP2-ACM, received IND clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, in July 2023. LX2020 received Fast Track and Orphan Drug designations from the FDA in December 2023. We expect to dose the first patient in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in the first half of 2024 and provide an interim data readout from cohort 1 in the second half of 2024.
Our lead Alzheimer’s disease product candidate, LX1001 for the treatment of APOE4 homozygous patients with Alzheimer’s disease, is in an ongoing Phase 1/2 trial. In December 2022, we reported that we observed an increase in expression levels of the protective protein, APOE2, in the first dose cohort and a consistent trend towards improvement in core Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in the first dose cohort. We completed enrollment of the trial in the fourth quarter of 2023 and expect to report additional interim data from all cohorts in the Phase 1/2 clinical trial in the second half of 2024.
We are targeting diseases that have seen limited penetration of precision medicine, which we define as medications that treat the underlying molecular mechanism of a disease, and where we believe there is a significant opportunity for gene therapy to play a role as a key therapeutic option. We believe the specific indications we are initially targeting, FA cardiomyopathy, PKP2-ACM and APOE4-associated Alzheimer’s disease are highly amenable to gene therapy, where administration of a single dose has the potential to either restore loss-of-function or minimize gain-of-function mutations by treating the underlying genetic cause of the disease. Although few precision medicines are currently approved for the treatment of cardiovascular conditions or Alzheimer’s disease, recent approvals by the FDA suggest a willingness to approve new precision medicines based on biomarkers and functional endpoints. Together with improved diagnostics and increased testing, these developments may offer one of the most substantial opportunities for the uptake of precision medicines in the global pharmaceutical marketplace.
Each of our gene therapy candidates utilizes the vector construct, dose and route of administration that we believe will result in the most favorable biodistribution and safety profile for our product candidate for each disease. Our most advanced cardiovascular and APOE4-associated Alzheimer’s disease programs use the AAVrh10 vector due to its high transduction efficiency in both myocardial cells and neurons, potential for lower toxicity given the opportunity to utilize lower doses compared to other well-established AAV serotypes, and low pre-existing immunity.
By specifically tailoring our technological approach to each targeted disease, we believe we can optimize our programs to achieve the highest likelihood of having therapeutic impact. We target genetically defined indications in specific sub-groups of patients that offer the potential to demonstrate therapeutic impact through improvement in functional endpoints or biomarkers, have high unmet need and large market opportunities, have established proof-of-concept in relevant preclinical models, and have organized patient advocacy groups and identifiable patient populations. In addition to targeting cardiovascular diseases and APOE4-associated Alzheimer’s disease that we believe can be addressed by our current approach utilizing AAVrh10, we have ongoing discovery efforts to identify next-generation vector technologies with the best potential therapeutic profile. Finally, we continuously seek to bolster our pipeline through relationships with academic institutions, providing us access to cutting edge genetic medicines research which will include not only AAV gene therapy but also other potential therapeutic payload types and non-viral delivery systems. In August 2023, we announced a strategic investment from Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. to explore collaboration opportunities within our preclinical cardiovascular pipeline.