Copyright Reuters
Shares of the gene therapy developer rose 12.5% to $9.55 in premarket trading on Monday after the news. Sign up here. Under the deal, MeiraGTx will get an upfront payment of $75 million and potentially over $400 million more in milestone payments. MeiraGTx is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on licensed products. MeiraGTx's experimental therapy, AAV-AIPL1, is being studied to treat one of the most severe forms of Leber congenital amaurosis 4, caused by mutations in the AIPL1 gene, and is delivered via subretinal injection to children. Through a one-time administration, AAV-AIPL1 is designed to deliver functional copies of the AIPL1 gene to photoreceptors in the retina, to restore vision. Lilly will also receive worldwide exclusive rights to MeiraGTx's gene therapy technologies for use in ophthalmology and gains certain rights to its proprietary riboswitch technology for use in gene editing in the eye. Reporting by Sahil Pandey in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed
