Orchard Therapeutics (Orchard), a UCL spin out company, which develops pioneering gene therapies for rare diseases, is set to be acquired by Japanese pharmaceutical firm Kyowa Kirin for up to $477.6m (£393.3m).
Orchard was founded in 2015 through a partnership between UCL Business (UCLB), the commercialisation company for UCL, and F-Prime Capital Partners. Its revolutionary treatments are the result of decades long gene therapy research and clinical work led by UCL Professors Bobby Gaspar and Adrian Thrasher, both based at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.