PROSPECTUS SUMMARY
This summary highlights selected information contained elsewhere in this prospectus. This summary does not contain all of the information you should consider before investing in our securities. You should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the sections of this prospectus titled “Risk Factors,” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” “and under similar captions in the documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus, before making an investment decision. Unless otherwise indicated, all references in this prospectus to “Organovo,” the “company,” “we,” “our,” “us” or similar terms refer to Organovo Holdings, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries, including Organovo, Inc. and Opal Merger Sub, Inc.
Overview
Organovo Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONVO), together with its wholly owned subsidiaries (collectively, “Organovo”, “we”, “us” and “our”), is a clinical stage biotechnology company that is focused on developing FXR314 in inflammatory bowel disease (“IBD”), including ulcerative colitis (“UC”), based on demonstration of clinical promise in three-dimensional (“3D”) human tissues as well as strong preclinical data. FXR is a mediator of gastrointestinal and liver diseases. FXR agonism has been tested in a variety of preclinical models of IBD. FXR314 is the lead compound in our established FXR program containing two clinically tested compounds (including FXR314) and over 2,000 discovery or preclinical compounds. FXR314 is a drug with safety and tolerability after daily oral dosing in Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials. Further, FXR314 has FDA clinical trial authorization for a Phase 2 trial in UC.
Our current clinical focus is in advancing FXR314 in IBD, including UC and Crohn’s disease (“CD”). We plan to start a Phase 2a clinical trial in UC in the calendar year 2025. We released Phase 2 data for FXR314 for the treatment of metabolic function-associated steatohepatitis ("MASH") in April 2024 that are supportive of ongoing development, and we believe FXR314 has a commercial opportunity in MASH, most likely in combination therapy. We are exploring the potential for combination therapies using FXR314 and currently approved mechanisms in preclinical animal studies and our IBD disease models.
Our second focus is building high fidelity, 3D tissues that recapitulate key aspects of human disease. We use our proprietary technology to build functional 3D human tissues that mimic key aspects of native human tissue composition, architecture, function and disease. We believe these attributes can enable critical complex, multicellular disease models that can be used to develop clinically effective drugs across multiple therapeutic areas.
As with the clinical development program, we are initially focusing on the intestine and have ongoing 3D tissue development efforts in human tissue models of UC and CD. We use these models to identify new molecular targets responsible for driving the disease and to explore the mechanism of action of known drugs including FXR314 and related molecules. We intend to initiate drug discovery programs around these new validated targets to identify drug candidates for partnering and/or internal clinical development.
Our current understanding of intestinal tissue models and IBD disease models leads us to believe that we can create models that provide greater insight into the biology of these diseases than are generally currently available. We are creating high fidelity disease models, leveraging our prior work including the work found in our peer-reviewed publication on bioprinted intestinal tissues (Madden et al. Bioprinted 3D Primary Human Intestinal Tissues Model Aspects of Native Physiology and ADME/Tox Functions. iScience. 2018 Apr 27;2:156-167. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2018.03.015.) Our advances include cell type-specific compartments, prevalent intercellular tight junctions, and the formation of microvascular structures.
Using these disease models, we intend to identify and validate novel therapeutic targets. After finding therapeutic drug targets, we intend to focus on developing novel small molecule, antibody, or other therapeutic drug candidates to treat the disease, and advance these novel drug candidates towards an Investigational New Drug filing and potential future clinical trials.
We expect to broaden our work into additional therapeutic areas over time and are currently exploring specific tissues for development. In our work to identify the areas of interest, we evaluate areas that might be better served with 3D disease models than currently available models as well as the potential commercial opportunity. In line with these plans, we are building upon both our external and in house scientific expertise, which will be essential to our drug development effort.
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