Nationwide Children’s Hospital spinoff Myonexus Therapeutics, a clinical-stage gene therapy company, is being bought by Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. for $165 million.
Sarepta paid $60 million in Myonexus last year and entered into an exclusive partnership to develop the company’s five limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD) gene therapy candidates. As part of that deal, Sarepta had an option to buy Myonexus at a pre-determined purchase price with sales-related contingent payments.
The agreement follows positive, preliminary results from Myonexus’ LGMD 2E program.
- LGMD2E is a rare, degenerative and universally fatal form of muscular dystrophy caused by a genetic mutation. The Myonexus gene therapy platform was evaluated by a research team at Nationwide Children’s Hospital for more than 12 years before being licensed to Myonexus, an independent company formed in 2017.
- Through the exclusive partnership, the two companies also developed Myonexus’ five LGMD gene therapy candidates, three of which are in clinical development and two are in pre-clinical development.
