Moderna and Metagenomi Establish Collaboration to Develop Next-Generation In Vivo Gene Editing Therapeutics

Mod­er­na Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), a biotech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny pio­neer­ing mes­sen­ger RNA (mRNA) ther­a­peu­tics and vac­cines and Metageno­mi, Inc., a genet­ic med­i­cines com­pa­ny with a ver­sa­tile port­fo­lio of next-gen­er­a­tion gene edit­ing tools, today announced that the two com­pa­nies have entered into a strate­gic research and devel­op­ment col­lab­o­ra­tion focused on advanc­ing new gene edit­ing sys­tems for in vivo human ther­a­peu­tic appli­ca­tions. The col­lab­o­ra­tion will uti­lize Metagenomi’s nov­el gene edit­ing tools and lever­age Moderna’s mRNA plat­form, as well as lipid nanopar­ti­cle (LNP) deliv­ery tech­nolo­gies, with the goal of devel­op­ing cura­tive ther­a­pies for patients with seri­ous genet­ic diseases.

“Metageno­mi has demon­strat­ed the pow­er of its pro­pri­etary metage­nomics approach that mines the Earth’s nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment to dis­cov­er next-gen­er­a­tion gene edit­ing tools and has devel­oped dis­cov­ery capa­bil­i­ties with the poten­tial to address mul­ti­ple dis­eases,” said Eric Huang, PhD, Gen­er­al Man­ag­er & Chief Sci­en­tif­ic Offi­cer, Mod­er­na Genomics (mGx). ​“Their dis­cov­ery plat­form and exper­tise will expand Mod­er­na Genomics’ ongo­ing efforts to devel­op inno­v­a­tive in vivo gene edit­ing ther­a­pies to address a sig­nif­i­cant unmet med­ical need. This col­lab­o­ra­tion rep­re­sents anoth­er mile­stone on our jour­ney to cre­ate trans­for­ma­tion­al genome-engi­neer­ing based medicines.”

“Gene edit­ing has the poten­tial to pro­vide a cure for mil­lions of patients liv­ing with genet­ic dis­ease. Our part­ner­ship with Mod­er­na is designed to accel­er­ate the cre­ation of genet­ic med­i­cines using Metagenomi’s nat­u­ral­ly derived, com­pact, mod­u­lar and pre­cise gene edit­ing sys­tems,” said Bri­an C. Thomas, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Metageno­mi. ​“This part­ner­ship will enhance our shared vision to forge trans­for­ma­tive ther­a­peu­tics for patients.”

“Unlock­ing the ther­a­peu­tic poten­tial of gene edit­ing requires a long-term com­mit­ment to devel­op the best tech­nolo­gies for both in vivo deliv­ery and gene repair,” said Jak Knowles, MD, CBO at Metageno­mi. ​“We share Moderna’s goal to devel­op mRNA-based med­i­cines, and we are thrilled to part­ner with them.”

About the Collaboration

Under the terms of the col­lab­o­ra­tion, Metageno­mi and Mod­er­na will advance a series of in vivo gene edit­ing ther­a­peu­tics against undis­closed tar­gets. Metageno­mi will uti­lize its vast tool­box of gene edit­ing sys­tems in com­bi­na­tion with Moderna’s mRNA and LNP tech­nolo­gies, to deliv­er next-gen­er­a­tion ther­a­pies for genet­ic dis­eases. Metageno­mi will receive an upfront cash pay­ment and is eli­gi­ble to receive cer­tain tar­get option exer­cise fees as well as devel­op­ment, reg­u­la­to­ry and com­mer­cial mile­stone pay­ments, plus tiered roy­al­ties on net sales of any prod­ucts that are com­mer­cial­ized by Mod­er­na. Mod­er­na has also agreed to make an equi­ty invest­ment in Metageno­mi in the form of a con­vert­ible note.

About Mod­er­na

In 10 years since its incep­tion, Mod­er­na has trans­formed from a sci­ence research-stage com­pa­ny advanc­ing pro­grams in the field of mes­sen­ger RNA (mRNA), to an enter­prise with a diverse clin­i­cal port­fo­lio of vac­cines and ther­a­peu­tics across six modal­i­ties, a broad intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty port­fo­lio in areas includ­ing mRNA and lipid nanopar­ti­cle for­mu­la­tion, and an inte­grat­ed man­u­fac­tur­ing plant that allows for both clin­i­cal and com­mer­cial pro­duc­tion at scale and at unprece­dent­ed speed. Mod­er­na main­tains alliances with a broad range of domes­tic and over­seas gov­ern­ment and com­mer­cial col­lab­o­ra­tors, which has allowed for the pur­suit of both ground­break­ing sci­ence and rapid scal­ing of man­u­fac­tur­ing. Most recent­ly, Moderna’s capa­bil­i­ties have come togeth­er to allow the autho­rized use of one of the ear­li­est and most-effec­tive vac­cines against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderna’s mRNA plat­form builds on con­tin­u­ous advances in basic and applied mRNA sci­ence, deliv­ery tech­nol­o­gy and man­u­fac­tur­ing, and has allowed the devel­op­ment of ther­a­peu­tics and vac­cines for infec­tious dis­eases, immuno-oncol­o­gy, rare dis­eases, car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases and autoim­mune dis­eases. Mod­er­na has been named a top bio­phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal employ­er by Sci­ence for the past sev­en years. To learn more, vis­it www​.mod​er​natx​.com.

About Metageno­mi

Metageno­mi is a gene edit­ing com­pa­ny com­mit­ted to devel­op­ing poten­tial­ly cura­tive ther­a­peu­tics by lever­ag­ing a pro­pri­etary tool­box of next-gen­er­a­tion gene edit­ing sys­tems to accu­rate­ly edit DNA where cur­rent tech­nolo­gies can­not. Our metage­nomics-pow­ered dis­cov­ery plat­form and ana­lyt­i­cal exper­tise reveal nov­el cel­lu­lar machin­ery sourced from oth­er­wise unknown organ­isms. We adapt and forge these nat­u­ral­ly evolved sys­tems into pow­er­ful gene edit­ing sys­tems that are ultra-small, extreme­ly effi­cient, high­ly spe­cif­ic and have a decreased risk of immune response. These sys­tems fuel our pipeline of nov­el med­i­cines and can be lever­aged by part­ners. Our goal is to rev­o­lu­tion­ize gene edit­ing for the ben­e­fit of patients around the world. For more infor­ma­tion, please vis­it https://​metageno​mi​.co/.

Mod­er­na For­ward-Look­ing Statements

This press release con­tains for­ward-look­ing state­ments with­in the mean­ing of the Pri­vate Secu­ri­ties Lit­i­ga­tion Reform Act of 1995, as amend­ed, includ­ing regard­ing: the col­lab­o­ra­tion between Mod­er­na and Metageno­mi to accel­er­ate the devel­op­ment of gene edit­ing tech­nolo­gies; the finan­cial struc­ture for that col­lab­o­ra­tion and poten­tial for pay­ments; and the poten­tial devel­op­ment of genet­ic med­i­cines using gene edit­ing sys­tems. The for­ward-look­ing state­ments in this press release are nei­ther promis­es nor guar­an­tees, and you should not place undue reliance on these for­ward-look­ing state­ments because they involve known and unknown risks, uncer­tain­ties, and oth­er fac­tors, many of which are beyond Moderna’s con­trol and which could cause actu­al results to dif­fer mate­ri­al­ly from those expressed or implied by these for­ward-look­ing state­ments. These risks, uncer­tain­ties, and oth­er fac­tors include those oth­er risks and uncer­tain­ties described under the head­ing ​“Risk Fac­tors” in Moderna’s most recent Annu­al Report on Form 10‑K filed with the U.S. Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC) and in sub­se­quent fil­ings made by Mod­er­na with the SEC, which are avail­able on the SEC’s web­site at www​.sec​.gov. Except as required by law, Mod­er­na dis­claims any inten­tion or respon­si­bil­i­ty for updat­ing or revis­ing any for­ward-look­ing state­ments con­tained in this press release in the event of new infor­ma­tion, future devel­op­ments or oth­er­wise. These for­ward-look­ing state­ments are based on Moderna’s cur­rent expec­ta­tions and speak only as of the date hereof.

Contacts

Mod­er­na

Investors:
Lav­ina Taluk­dar
Senior Vice Pres­i­dent & Head of Investor Rela­tions
Lavina.​Talukdar@​modernatx.​com
(617) 209‑5834

Media:
Colleen Hussey
Direc­tor, Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions
Colleen.​Hussey@​modernatx.​com
(617) 335‑1374

Metageno­mi

Investors:
Simon Harnest
CIO, SVP Strat­e­gy
simon@​metagenomi.​co
(917) 403‑1051

Media:
Ash­lye Hodge
Sr. Mar­ket­ing and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Spe­cial­ist
ashlye@​metagenomi.​co
(510) 734‑4409