MeiraGTx is gaining up to $400 million in funding from investment firm Oberland Capital Management to help support the potential launches of gene therapies it’s been developing for inherited eye conditions.
Through a deal announced Tuesday, Oberland will provide MeiraGTx with as much as $375 million in financing and up to $25 million in the form of an equity investment. In return, Oberland will receive single-digit royalties on the three MeiraGTx candidates involved in the agreement, all of which are being developed for different eye diseases.
MeiraGTx could potentially bring three treatments to market in the next year or two. One, for an ultra-rare, blinding condition called Leber congenital amaurosis-4, was licensed to Eli Lilly last November. MeiraGTx owns rights to the other two: bota-vec, for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, and AAV2-hAQP1 for radiation-induced xerostomia.
In a statement, MeiraGTx CEO and president Alexandria Forbes said the new investment demonstrates “exceptional confidence” in the data supporting those programs as well as the sales potential of bota-vec and AAV2-hAQP1 specifically.
MeiraGTx expects to report data from a pivotal study of AAV2-hAQP1 in the second quarter of next year, with a potential approval following in 2027 and a U.S. launch as early as 2028 in the U.S. In April, the company reported positive three-year data from an early trial of the therapy, which could be eligible for a “priority review” from the Food and Drug Administration.
Less clear is the future of bota-vec. Johnson & Johnson once worked with MeiraGTx on the therapy, but the treatment missed its main objective in a late-stage trial last year and the big drugmaker returned ownership rights in April. MeiraGTx, though, has been optimistic about a clarance given other benefits observed in testing.
“MeiraGTx is in the rare position of having three potentially approvable therapies within the next 12 to 24 months, two of which have significant commercial potential” and would be “first to market in areas of complete unmet need,” said Oberland partner Michael Bloom, in the statement.
