MeiraGTx locks in up to $400M from Oberland to push two gene therapies toward launch

MeiraGTx has lined up as much as $400 million from Oberland Capital — mostly non-dilutive royalty financing plus a small equity stake — to carry its lead eye and radiation-injury gene therapies through to commercialization.

The agreement involves up to $375 million in capped-royalty funding against future sales of AAV2-hAQP1 (radiation-induced xerostomia), bota-vec (X-linked retinitis pigmentosa) and AAV-AIPL1 (LCA4), plus up to $25 million in equity.

“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. Each of these would be first to market in areas of complete unmet need where there are a large number of patients waiting for these potential treatments,” said Michael Bloom, partner at Oberland Capital.

MeiraGTx reacquired bota-vec from Johnson & Johnson back in April, after the therapy failed to meet its primary endpoint — vision-guided mobility — in a phase 3 XLRP trial. However, all but one of the secondary endpoints, including measures from all three visual domains – functional vision, retinal function and visual function – showed benefit.