Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. (ADVM)

Adverum Biotechnologies was a clinical-stage gene therapy company based in Redwood City, California. Its origins go back to 2006, when it was formed as Avalanche Biotechnologies, which went public in 2014. In 2016, Avalanche combined with Annapurna Therapeutics and was renamed Adverum, with a focus on adeno-associated virus gene therapy for eye and rare diseases.

The company's lead program was ixoberogene soroparvovec, known as ixo-vec and formerly ADVM-022. It is designed as a one-time intravitreal injection that delivers a gene encoding an anti-VEGF protein, with the aim of letting the eye produce its own treatment for neovascular, or wet, age-related macular degeneration. Current standard therapy requires repeated injections, often every one to three months, so a durable alternative could reduce treatment burden for patients.

Adverum used a vector discovered through directed evolution to enable delivery of the gene by injection into the vitreous of the eye rather than by surgery. Early clinical results in patients with wet AMD showed sustained expression and reduced need for rescue injections, although a safety event of ocular inflammation in an earlier study led the company to reprioritize its pipeline. The company later advanced ixo-vec into pivotal-stage development.

The shares traded on Nasdaq under the symbol ADVM. Like other clinical-stage companies, Adverum had no product revenue and funded operations through equity offerings. It carried out a reverse stock split in 2024 and reduced costs as it sought to extend its cash runway while advancing late-stage trials.

On October 24, 2025, Eli Lilly announced an agreement to acquire Adverum through a tender offer. Lilly agreed to pay $3.56 per share in cash, plus one non-transferable contingent value right per share that could pay up to $8.91 in cash if specified development and regulatory milestones for ixo-vec are achieved. The total value was described as up to roughly $262 million.

The tender offer expired in early December 2025, with the required number of shares tendered, and Lilly completed the acquisition by merging a subsidiary into Adverum, which became a wholly owned Lilly subsidiary. A Form 25 was filed with the SEC on December 9, 2025 to remove the common stock from Nasdaq, and trading under the ADVM symbol ended.