Metagenomi Shares Drop as Moderna Collaboration Terminated
Metagenomi Inc’s (Nasdaq: MGX) share price dropped by almost 12.0% in intraday trading on Thursday after the company announced that it had mutually agreed to terminate a collaboration with Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA). Moderna’s shares soared 15.09% following the news. Moderna currently owns 4.5% of the company and will continue to be a shareholder of Metagenomi’s stock.
Metagenomi, a precision genetic medicines company, launched a successful IPO, raising nearly $100 million earlier in 2024. The company has regained full global rights to research, develop, manufacture, and commercialize its wholly-owned gene editing technologies, including base editors and RNA-mediated integration systems (RIGS), which were previously subject to exclusive rights granted to Moderna.
Brian C. Thomas, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Metagenomi, Inc., commented on the news, saying, “We are pleased to regain full control of the development of base editing technology and RIGS systems so that we may advance them in areas of significant need, such as Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and Wilson’s disease.
“In addition to exponential growth in terms of talent and footprint, we have leveraged significant private and public funding to greatly expand our gene editing toolbox, and established in-house manufacturing. With this announcement, we continue to have the opportunity to accelerate our mission to become the premier gene editing company.”
About Metagenomi
Metagenomi is a precision genetic medicines company committed to developing curative therapeutics for patients using its proprietary, comprehensive metagenomics-derived toolbox. Metagenomi is harnessing the power of metagenomics, the study of genetic material recovered from the natural environment, to unlock four billion years of microbial evolution to discover and develop a suite of novel editing tools capable of correcting any type of genetic mutation found anywhere in the genome. Its comprehensive genome editing toolbox includes programmable nucleases, base editors, and RNA and DNA-mediated integration systems (including prime editing systems and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat associated transposases). Metagenomi believes its diverse and modular toolbox positions the company to access the entire genome and select the optimal tool to unlock the full potential of genome editing for patients. For more information, please visit https://metagenomi.co.
