Sangamo’s breakup sale puts its gene tech on the block

Breakup mode, activated

Sangamo Therapeutics has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which is Wall Street’s version of saying, “We’re not pivoting, we’re packing boxes.” The company is looking to sell assets through a court-supervised process, and it already has stalking horse bidders in place for some of the juiciest pieces.

Lilly wants the platform, Astellas wants the Fabry asset

Eli Lilly’s affiliate has agreed to bid $50 million, plus assumed liabilities, for a bundle of Sangamo technology: its AAV capsid engineering platform, zinc finger protein technology, Modular Integrase genome editing platform, and the ST-506 prion disease program. That bid sets the floor, but higher offers can still crash the party.

Astellas, meanwhile, is aiming at Sangamo’s Fabry disease candidate isaralgagene civaparvovec. That deal includes $25 million at closing and up to another $25 million in milestones. Both transactions still need bankruptcy court approval, because apparently even biotech breakup sales need a referee.

The lights stay on, for now

Sangamo also secured up to $30 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Northridge, with an initial $10.5 million tranche potentially available sooner. That cash is meant to keep operations running long enough to make the sale process work.

The catch? The company is also cutting about 51 U.S. jobs, roughly 40% of its workforce, and expects $3 million to $4 million in restructuring charges. So yes, the asset sale may save value — but it’s doing so after a pretty brutal reset.

Big picture: this is less about a comeback story and more about who gets to buy the good parts before the rest of the ship sinks.