8-10 November 2018 – Optio attended the 2018 Huntington Study Group congress in Houston, Texas. The congress theme, “Unlocking HD” featured exciting new therapies being developed by Roche/Genentech and WAVE/Takeda. Optio anticipates the HD space becoming highly competitive if both RG6042, the  full mHTT/HTT targeting antisense oligonucleotide, and WAVE’s allele-selective ASO mHTT-targeting therapy reach the market.  Both products involve intrathecal dosing and all the community education, logistical support and planning that type of administration entails. The first level of competition will involve acquisition of clinical trial patients. With some ambition from WAVE and standard clinical operations performance, both products could launch within 6-9 months of each other. Optio predicts the organization(s) with the best grasp and investment in new product planning  and operational mapping will be most successful in capturing maximum value from their product’s clinical profile. While the initial messaging from Roche/Genentech (which could be summarized as, … there’s no known benefit to selectively targeting the mutant protein and no known issue with lowering wild-type/normal HTT) was not met with any substantial challenge at this meeting, things may change if/when WAVE/Takeda begin investing in market development.