OvaScience was a publicly traded
biotechnology
Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...
company, focused on
female infertility. It was founded in 2011 by
Michelle Dipp
Michelle Dipp is an American scientist, businesswoman, and investor. She is the co-founder and a managing partner at Biospring Partners and serves on the board of Abzena and Kiniciti.
Early life and education
Michelle Dipp was raised in El P ...
, Richard Aldrich,
Christoph Westphal, Jonathan Tilly, and
David Sinclair based on scientific work done by Tilly concerning mammalian
oogonial stem cells Oogonial stem cells (OSCs), also known as egg precursor cells or female germline cells, are diploid germline cells with stem cell characteristics: the ability to renew and differentiate into other cell types, different from their tissue of origin. P ...
and work on
mitochondria by Sinclair.
[ Tilly's work was controversial, with some groups unable to replicate it.
As of December 2016, the company was developing two ]in vitro fertilization
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) f ...
services.[ In one service, which it calls "Augment", it would harvest putative oogonial stem cells from a woman, extract mitochondria from those cells, and inject them into an ]oocyte
An oocyte (, ), oöcyte, or ovocyte is a female gametocyte or germ cell involved in reproduction. In other words, it is an immature ovum, or egg cell. An oocyte is produced in a female fetus in the ovary during female gametogenesis. The femal ...
from the woman, along with sperm, in a form of augmented intracytoplasmic sperm injection
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI ) is an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure in which a single sperm cell is injected directly into the cytoplasm of an egg. This technique is used in order to prepare the gametes for the obtention of em ...
("ICSI"). In the other, which it calls "OvaTure," it would harvest putative oogonial stem cells from a woman, mature them into oocytes ''in vitro'', and then fertilize them with ICSI.[ It had introduced the Augment service in 2014 in ten clinics located in the ]United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...
, Canada and Japan. The company's claims about its services were controversial from their first announcements.
Dipp, Aldrich, Westphal, and Sinclair had previously worked together to found and develop Sirtris Pharmaceuticals around Sinclair's work on resveratrol
Resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxy-''trans''-stilbene) is a stilbenoid, a type of natural phenol, and a phytoalexin produced by several plants in response to injury or when the plant is under attack by pathogens, such as bacteria or fungi. Sources ...
— the company was sold to GlaxoSmithKline
GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British Multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a Mergers and acquisitions, merger of Gl ...
in 2008 for around $720 million and then was absorbed into GSK in 2013 after reservatrol was abandoned in 2010;[ Dipp, Westphal, and Aldrich were also involved in Alnara Pharmaceuticals, which was sold to ]Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly (July 8, 1838 – June 6, 1898) was an American soldier, pharmacist, chemist, and businessman who founded the Eli Lilly and Company pharmaceutical corporation. Lilly enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War and r ...
in 2010 for around $180 million and was also later abandoned by its purchaser when its technology failed.[
The company's A financing round was $6 million, financed by Longwood Fund and Bessemer Venture Partners, and it raised a $37 million B round in early 2012, funded by General Catalyst, BBT Capital Management Advisors, Cycad Group, Hunt BioVentures, RA Capital, Longwood, Bessemer, and other undisclosed investors.
OvaScience held its public offering in 2012, and part of its pitch to investors was that its services would probably not be regulated by the FDA so it would probably be able to start generating significant revenue in the US by the end of 2013, but in 2013 the FDA ruled that it would need to file an investigational new drug application before it could start marketing the service; OvaScience's shares fell 40% in response.
Its share price reached about $50 in January 2015.
By September 2016 OvaScience had raised and spent around $228 million.][ In early December its shares were trading at around $3; in mid-December 2016 the company's shares fell around 50% when it announced layoffs and the departure of its CEO and chief operating officer in the face of sales continuing to fall below expectations.
In 2015 ]venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...
companies invested $118 million in companies addressing infertility
Infertility is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species (mostly haplodiploid insects). It is the normal st ...
and in 2016 they invested around $100 million; along with OvaScience, other companies with significant investment included Natera
Natera, Inc. is a clinical genetic testing company based in Austin, Texas that specializes in non-invasive, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) testing technology, with a focus on women’s health, cancer, and organ health. Natera’s proprietary technology ...
, Femasys, and Progyny.
On August 9, 2018, a merger agreement was announced between OvaScience and Millendo Therapeutics, Inc., in a reverse merger transaction, where Millendo's leadership team and development pipeline would continue on post-transaction.
See also
* Mitochondrial replacement therapy
References
External links
*
* {{cite news, last1=Hardymon, first1=G. Felda, last2=Nicholas, first2=Tom, last3=Stuart, first3=Toby, last4=Fisher, first4=Noah, title=Case Study: OvaScience, url=https://hbr.org/product/OvaScience/an/815058-PDF-ENG, work=Harvard Business Review, date=September 5, 2014
Biotechnology companies of the United States
Biotechnology companies established in 2011