MeiraGTx Announces Asset Purchase Agreement Involving its AAV-RPGR Collaboration for up to $415 million

- MeiraGTx enters into an Asset Purchase Agreement related to botaretigene sparoparvovec (bota-vec, formerly AAV-RPGR) for the treatment of X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP) for a total of up to $415 million

- MeiraGTx to receive $130 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments as part of the agreement

- MeiraGTx to receive up to an additional $285 million upon first commercial sales of bota-vec in U.S. and EU and manufacturing technology transfer

LONDON and NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MeiraGTx Holdings plc (Nasdaq: MGTX), a vertically integrated, clinical stage gene therapy company, today announced an asset purchase agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (J&J), a Johnson & Johnson company, for the remaining interests in bota-vec for the treatment of XLRP, as well as a commercial supply agreement and a technology transfer agreement for bota-vec manufacturing.

“We are very happy to announce the execution of the agreements related to bota-vec for the treatment of XLRP, which provide us with significant near-term cash as well as cash upon potential approval and commercialization of this important gene therapy, and additional revenue from the commercial manufacture of bota-vec,” said Alexandria Forbes, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of MeiraGTx. “The initial $130 million upfront and near-term milestone payments, combined with the $30 million investment we received from Sanofi in October, increases our cash runway to mid-2026, without including the additional $285 million in potential payments associated with this transaction.”

Dr. Forbes continued, “This puts us in a strong financial position and allows us to increase our focus on our two late-stage clinical programs in Xerostomia and Parkinson’s disease and our leading end-to-end manufacturing capabilities, with potential strategic activities around each of these wholly-owned assets. In addition, we continue to expedite the development of our Riboswitch gene regulation platform prioritizing targets in metabolic disease, immunology and oncology, which we believe have the potential to significantly alter outcomes in these broad disease areas and include several areas of interest from Sanofi following their investment earlier this quarter.”