Transcript
The Brief Interviewer (00:17.752)
Welcome everyone to a special episode of The Brief. The following interview with Walter Patterson, co-founder of MiniCircle, was filmed live at our invitation-only Olivon Advisors Spring 2025 conference in Austin, Texas. Let’s get started. When did you create MiniCircle and how did you decide which product or products to pursue first?
Walter Patterson (00:42)
So the company started in 2019, but we’ve been researching this topic for like several years prior. And we essentially selected the first target out of safety. You we wanted, we didn’t know about how to necessarily figure a kill switch or these kinds of things in the very beginning. So we wanted something that regardless of what we did, we wouldn’t end up hurting ourselves.
The Brief Interviewer (01:03)
What makes your gene therapy unique?
Walter Patterson (01:08)
So all gene therapy starts life out as plasmids, whether that’s CRISPR, AAV, what have you. So everything else is a derivative. It’s a complication. And so we went for as simple as we could possibly make it. And so that’s ultimately where we’ve landed up.
The Brief Interviewer (01:27)
What is the price point of the MiniCircle product?
Walter Patterson (01:31)
So the commonly available like AAV starts at 2 million and 2.2 million at a high point and then the lowest you’ll get is about 300,000. So we’re already a magnitude under and you know us the pricing is mostly based on how many clinics and how widespread it can be available. So it’s you supply and demand but we are about 25k at current.
The Brief Interviewer (02:00)
Are you pursuing FDA approval in the US? When do you expect this process to be completed?
Walter Patterson (02:06)
Well, you know, all things considered, and hopefully we’ll probably by the end of the year, start beginning to engage in the pre I and D positions with the FDA. And eventually we are going to onshore it. And we’re also going to pursue the Kofi priest, which is a Mexican equivalent.
The Brief Interviewer (02:26.563)
How many injections have been administered to date and what has the response been from patients? Have you had many repeat patients?
Walter Patterson (02:34)
So the therapy at current lasts, you know, and of course there’s variants. Some people might last a little longer. Some people might last a little bit shorter, but about a year is a generalized like timeframe. So it’s transient. Now we do, we have had repeat customers and about over 500 individuals have been administered the therapy in one jurisdiction or another that it’s legal and available.
The Brief Interviewer (03:00)
Thank you for joining us here at The Brief by Olivon Advisors. For more information on our presenters, please visit olivonadvisors.com/companies. Want to join our mailing list? You can by signing up at olivonadvisors.com. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Brief.
