AI-Powered Gene Editing Firm Metagenomi Files for IPO, Aims to Raise $100 Million

On January 5, in vivo gene editing company Metagenomi filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, aiming to raise up to 100 million US dollars. The stock code is MGX.

Due to the waning enthusiasm of investors in this field, this will be one of the few preclinical gene-editing biotechnology companies to undergo an IPO in the past two years.

Metagenomi, Inc. was founded in 2018 by Brian Thomas and Jillian Banfield, metagenomics scientists from the University of California, Berkeley.

Metagenomi has developed a series of modular and diverse toolkits, leveraging the power of metagenomics to unlock four billion years of microbial evolution and precisely target any site in the human genome.

By leveraging high-throughput screening, artificial intelligence, and proprietary algorithms, Metagenomi rapidly mines billions of novel proteins from metagenomic databases to create genomic editing tools.

To date, the company has analyzed more than 460 trillion base pairs, predicted over 7.4 billion proteins, including more than 322 million CRISPR-associated proteins and over 1.75 million CRISPR.

Image Source: Pharma Intelligence Official WeChat

The company has raised a total of $350 million in financing, completing a $75 million Series A round in May 2021; in January 2023, Metagenomi announced the completion of a $100 million Series B+ round, with the total Series B financing amounting to $275 million.

The company currently has more than thirty investors, including a豪华 lineup of Bayer, RA Capital, Moderna, Novo Nordisk's venture capital arm, BMS, SymBiosis, Catalio Capital Management, and many other industry and financial investment institutions.

However, Metagenomi has not yet advanced a drug into the clinical stage. Nevertheless, the company has established partnerships with well-known biotech companies such as Moderna and Ionis.

In November 2021, Moderna and Metagenomi reached a collaboration with a prepayment of $40 million. The two parties will utilize Moderna’s LNP delivery technology and Metagenomi’s CRISPR gene editing technology to develop a series of genetic disease treatment programs.

In November 2022, Metagenomi and Ionis reached a collaboration, with Ionis paying an upfront payment of $80 million. The two parties will jointly develop the next generation of gene editing systems to provide research drugs for up to four targets.

Source of the image: Official WeChat account of Zhi Medicine Bureau

These collaborations kick off potential programs targeting primary hyperoxaluria, transthyretin amyloidosis, and heart disease.

It is also developing drugs for other diseases, such as hemophilia A, as well as CAR-T therapies, and undisclosed targets in cardiovascular, oncology, and metabolic diseases.

In the nine months ended September 30, 2023, the company's collaboration revenue was $32.35 million, R&D support was $69.64 million, and net loss was $48.96 million.

Source of the image: Official WeChat account of Zhi Medicine Bureau

As of September 30, Metagenomi had $101 million in cash and equivalents, with an additional $191 million in marketable securities.

Recently, gene-editing therapy has been going through a tough period, and leading companies have started layoffs.

On January 4, Intellia Therapeutics, a pioneer in genome editing development founded by a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, will lay off 15% of its workforce.

On the same day, Aera Therapeutics, a CRISPR delivery startup, confirmed to STAT NEWS that it had laid off 25% of its employees. Its founder is one of the pioneering figures in CRISPR editing technology, Zhang Feng.

The report from HSBC pointed out that most of last year's biotech IPOs were "driven by late-stage mature assets." It remains unclear whether Metagenomi, which has no clinical pipeline, will gain support from the capital market.

Reference: Metagenomi Prospectus

Editor: Penicillin

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