J&J buys eye disease gene therapy from MeiraGTx, giving the biotech the cash infusion it was seeking

John­son & John­son pur­chased a gene ther­a­py for X-linked re­tini­tis pig­men­tosa from MeiraGTx for $65 mil­lion up­front, the biotech an­nounced Thurs­day.

The deal, which al­so comes with a com­mer­cial sup­ply agree­ment, could be worth up to $415 mil­lion, in­clud­ing an­oth­er $65 mil­lion in mile­stone pay­ments ex­pect­ed in 2024 and up to $285 mil­lion up­on first sales of the gene ther­a­py in the US and EU.

J&J was al­ready spon­sor­ing a Phase III tri­al for the gene ther­a­py can­di­date known as botareti­gene sparopar­vovec, or bo­ta-vec for short. In 2019, J&J struck a li­cens­ing deal with MeiraGTx around three eye dis­ease pro­grams, in­clud­ing bo­ta-vec, and paid $100 mil­lion up­front.

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