MeiraGTx Enters Collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation to Develop Regulatable Gene Therapy Treatment

MeiraGTx Holdings Plc announced that it has entered into a research collaboration and evaluation agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Janssen), one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. The agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC. As part of the agreement, MeiraGTx will use their proprietary riboswitch technology to engineer regulatable gene therapy constructs encoding proprietary gene sequences from Janssen. Evaluation of the performance of these constructs will determine the utility of this approach in future product development.

MeiraGTx’s gene regulation platform is a potentially transformative technology that incorporates an on/off switch for gene expression into the gene therapy vector which can then be activated using a small molecule. In this way, gene therapies can be switched on and off according to the patients’ need and the dosing requirements of the therapy. Temporal control overlaying spatial regulation of gene expression has the potential to increase the utility and flexibility of gene therapy.

“We are excited to collaborate with the Janssen team on the next stage of development of our riboswitch technology, which has the potential to transform the field of gene therapy. Our gene regulation platform, based on RNA structure, was invented and developed entirely in-house at MeiraGTx and is a reflection of our commitment to ground-breaking science,” said Alexandria Forbes, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of MeiraGTx.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.