Weeks after canceling its IPO plans, Exton-based Castle Creek Biosciences has acquired Novavita Thera, a Minnesota-based preclinical gene therapy company that focuses on rare liver and metabolic diseases. John George provided details for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition expands Castle Creek’s development pipeline past its main focus of skin and connective tissue disorders. It also grows the company’s technology platform. The existing ex vivo approach, where cells and genes are modified outside the body, is being augmented by in vivo capabilities that alter cells and genes inside the body.

“This acquisition is a significant inflection point for Castle Creek,” said Matthew Gantz, Castle Creek CEO. “The ability to leverage both ex vivo– and in vivo-based approaches is a distinct advantage that few cell and gene therapy companies can offer. We are now in position to pursue new indications for devastating rare diseases.”

Gantz added that Castle Creek is continuing to advance its lead new drug candidate. The potential gene therapy treatment for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a rare skin disorder, is currently in late-stage clinical testing.

Read more about Castle Creek Biosciences in the Philadelphia Business Journal.