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Gene therapy specialist MeiraGTx is spinning some of its experimental medicines for the central nervous system into a startup that hopes to develop them further using artificial intelligence.
Aptly named Hologen Neuro AI, the startup is a joint venture between MeiraGTx and Hologen, a healthcare-focused, generative AI firm that taps what’s known as real-world data to better understand the biology of diseases and how to treat them. While Hologen hasn’t publicly disclosed much about itself, the firm’s team includes Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, as well as Pierre-François Filet, the co-founder and former CEO of QuantHouse, a financial data provider.
Hologen and MeiraGTx say their joint venture aims to “transform the discovery and development of therapies targeting CNS circuitry.” The partners also claim it’s the first company of its type, operating at the intersection of AI and neuroscience.
In this setup, MeiraGTx is bringing the drugmaking technology and research programs. A gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease, which has advanced through mid-stage clinical testing, is going to the joint venture. So are some earlier-stage assets, namely a possible treatment for obesity that’s directed at the part of the brain that controls hunger.
Hologen, meanwhile, will provide its own “multi-modal generative foundation models,” along with $230 million to “fully finance the development” of MeiraGTx’s therapies.
Deal terms hold that MeiraGTx will receive $200 million in cash up front and a 30% stake in the joint venture. It will also lead clinical development and manufacturing operations and be the exclusive supplier of the drug product needed for testing and commercial use.
Additionally, MeiraGTx agreed to let Hologen take a minority stake in its manufacturing subsidiary. There, Hologen will “contribute to the annual funding” and use its generative AI platform along with MeiraGTx’s “unique data” to “further optimize” the manufacturing process, according to the companies’ statement.
The upfront money, plus the manufacturing funding and help developing the Parkinson’s program makes this deal financially “transformative” for MeiraGTx, according to CEO and co-founder Alexandria Forbes. It not only extends the company’s cash runway, she said, but provides the resources to speed up a program targeting dry mouth. It should also accelerate the development of a technology designed to switch the production of certain proteins on and off.