Shares of MeiraGTx Holdings PLC
MGTX,
+20.27%
jumped 14% premarket on Monday after the gene therapy company announced that French drugmaker Sanofi
SNY,
+4.01%
has made a $30 million investment.
Sanofi bought 4 million ordinary shares at a price of $7.50 per share, MeiraGTx said in a release Monday, and is getting a right of first negotiation for use of MeiraGTx’s Riboswitch gene regulation technology in certain immunology and inflammation, central nervous system, metabolic disease and other conditions.
MeiraGTx has also been approached by multiple parties with strategic interest in various company assets and is “actively pursuing these options,” the company said in the release.
Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said in a statement that the company welcomes “technological innovations that help us chase the scientific miracles of the future. We believe that MeiraGTx’s Riboswitch platform, supported by its unique manufacturing capabilities, is such a technology.”
The investment comes a few months after Sanofi expanded an earlier gene-therapy collaboration with Scribe Therapeutics Inc., licensing Scribe’s gene editing technology for development of in vivo therapies, including sickle cell disease.
MeiraGTx’s gene regulation technology uses pills designed to precisely control how much of a gene therapy gets made. The company has six programs in clinical development.
MeiraGTx shares are down 43% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX
has gained 7.2%. Sanofi’s American depositary receipts gained 1.8% premarket on Monday and have dropped 10.9% so far this year.
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