MeiraGTx Holdings Plc

Eli Lilly has entered a strategic collaboration with MeiraGTx, a vertically integrated, clinical-stage genetic medicines company, to develop and commercialise gene therapies targeting ophthalmic conditions. “Ophthalmology is an emerging area of interest for Lilly,” said Andrew Adams, Lilly Group Vice President, Molecule Discovery. “We are excited to partner with MeiraGTx to bring transformative treatments to patients around the world suffering from eye diseases, starting with AAV-AIPL1, which has shown the unprecedented ability to restore vision in children who were born legally blind.” Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will obtain exclusive rights to MeiraGTx’s AAV-AIPL1 programme for the treatment of Leber congenital amaurosis type 4 (LCA4), caused by genetic deficiency of aryl-hydrocarbon-interacting protein-like 1 (AIPL1) – a severe inherited retinal disorder. The companies reported that in a previous clinical study, all paediatric patients who were born legally blind due to the condition gained vision following treatment with the therapy. Lilly will also gain exclusive access to MeiraGTx’s gene therapy platform technologies, including novel intravitreal capsids and bespoke, AI-generated promoters for use in ophthalmology. In addition, Lilly will receive certain rights to MeiraGTx’s proprietary riboswitch technology, which enables precise gene editing within the eye. In exchange, MeiraGTx will receive an upfront payment of $75m and will be eligible for more than $400m in potential milestone payments. The company will also receive tiered royalties on future sales of licensed products.

Pfizer seals the deal with Metsera for $10 billion after Novo Nordisk bowed out; President Donald Trump welcomes executives from Novo and Eli Lilly to the White House to announce that the companies’ GLP-1 medicines would be sold at a reduced cost; and the FDA grants the second round of priority review vouchers—primarily to already marketed drugs. > Listen on Spotify > Listen on Apple Products > Listen on Amazon Music > Listen on iHeart One of biopharma’s most memorable bidding wars finally came to an end on Friday—with Metsera right back in the arms of its original suitor, but with Pfizer paying around $10 billion for the rights to the obesity biotech, a nearly $3 billion increase over its original bid. But while Novo Nordisk may have bowed out of that race, the company still made headlines this past week, with CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar joining Eli Lilly head David Ricks at the White House on Thursday to announce a deal that will see their GLP-1 drugs offered at about $350 per month. This marks a significant discount to the current list prices of $1086 and $1350 for Lilly’s obesity drug Zepbound and Novo’s comparator Wegovy, respectively. No matter how low they go, however, the GLP-1 leaders can still be undercut by compounders, Steven Grossman, policy and regulatory consultant and author of the FDA Matters blog, told BioSpace this week. Speaking of Lilly, the Indianapolis-based pharma had a busy week, reporting 20% weight loss in a mid-stage study of its amylin agonist eloralintide that William Blair analysts said “validates [the] amylin agonist class.” Lilly also netted two new partners, inking a $1.2 billion RNAi pact with SangeneBio to target metabolic diseases and licensing a genetic eye disease therapy from MeiraGTx Holdings for up to $475 million. On the regulatory front, the FDA awarded the second round of priority review vouchers under its new Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers program. Unlike the first cohort of vouchers, which was announced in October, this group mostly consisted of products already on the market—with the exception of Lilly’s orforglipron. Finally, BioSpace dives into one the hottest trends in the immunology and inflammation (I&I) space— pipeline-in-a-product . Possibly motivated by blockbuster drugs like AbbVie’s Skyrizi and Rinvoq and Regeneron and Sanofi’s Dupixent, companies are optimizing shots on multiple goals in this lucrative space.

Bengaluru: MeiraGTx Holdings has signed a deal with Eli Lilly , potentially worth over $475 million, granting the pharma giant rights to its experimental gene therapy for a rare, inherited disorder that causes severe vision loss from birth. Shares of the gene therapy developer rose 12.5% to $9.55 in premarket trading on Monday after the news. Under the deal, MeiraGTx will get an upfront payment of $75 million and potentially over $400 million more in milestone payments. MeiraGTx is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on licensed products. This marks Lilly's latest effort to tap the market for eye treatments and bolster its focus on gene therapies, after signing a deal valued at up to $261.7 million to buy gene therapy developer Adverum Biotechnologies in October. Adverum is developing an eye injection for wet age-related macular degeneration, or wAMD, a leading cause of blindness among the elderly. MeiraGTx's experimental therapy, AAV-AIPL1, is being studied to treat one of the most severe forms of Leber congenital amaurosis 4, caused by mutations in the AIPL1 gene, and is delivered via subretinal injection to children. Through a one-time administration, AAV-AIPL1 is designed to deliver functional copies of the AIPL1 gene to photoreceptors in the retina, to restore vision. Lilly will also receive worldwide exclusive rights to MeiraGTx's gene therapy technologies for use in ophthalmology and gains certain rights to its proprietary riboswitch technology for use in gene editing in the eye. (Reporting by Sahil Pandey in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)