In the first two quarters since going public, Metagenomi’s tie-up with Moderna ended, the California startup’s chief scientific officer departed and now the preclinical biotech’s pipeline has been fine-tuned.
Meanwhile, it made progress with partners Ionis and Affini-T, according to a Wednesday morning quarterly update.
The gene editing company, which was one of the few drug developers to go public before entering human trials during the market downturn, wants to offload multiple projects, it said in a second-quarter update. That includes finding a partner or licensee for its primary hyperoxaluria type 1 program and a licensee for its ex vivo cell therapy work.
Metagenomi is also ditching plans for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis following “recent peer company clinical data regarding the lack of efficacy of Ataxin-2 as a therapeutic target” for the condition. Metagenomi did not name the company. Biogen and partner Ionis said in May that they were scrapping an antisense oligonucleotide for ALS. While it was found to significantly lower levels of ataxin-2, it didn’t reduce levels of neurofilament light chain, the companies said.
Further, Metagenomi said it is “revising its pipeline design to consolidate earlier stage programs and make it easier to identify our near term pipeline priorities focused on in vivo gene editing and liver indications.”
The company’s shares $MGX were up about 6% before the opening bell. Its share price has slid about 68% since debuting on the Nasdaq in February.
The pipeline reconfiguring comes shortly after the startup lost its chief scientific officer, Luis Borges. A Metagenomi spokesperson told Endpoints News last month that it “came to a mutual separation” with Borges.
The company had also let R&D employees go around that time, according to an employee’s post on LinkedIn. Metagenomi had declined to comment on the moves. The workforce reduction appeared to be small: Metagenomi went from 237 full-time employees on March 31 to 228 on June 30, according to SEC filings.
The startup went public on the idea that it could broaden gene editing’s scope with ultra-small editing systems. Its “toolbox” includes base editors, prime editing, programmable nucleases and other applications. Like many other biotechs, it uses AI and proprietary algorithms and aims to “unlock four billion years of microbial evolution.”
This month, it selected a lead development candidate in hemophilia A. Known as MGX-001, the experimental medicine is expected to be a one-time treatment for adults and children with the blood-clotting disorder. The biotech plans to report non-human primate durability study data next month and file an IND in 2026.
Elsewhere, Metagenomi said all four programs in its “Wave 1 targets” with partner Ionis have moved into the lead optimization stage, aiming to choose one or two development candidates in the cardiometabolic space next year.
It also progressed its Affini-T collaboration around a T cell receptor-based therapy. In exchange for the work, Metagenomi got 933,000 shares of common stock of venture-backed Affini-T.
Metagenomi had $299.9 million in cash, equivalents and available-for-sale marketable securities at the end of June. It should keep the company running “into 2027,” according to the earnings report.