NEW YORK – Neurogene on Monday said it has entered into a securities purchase agreement for a $200 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing.
Under the terms of the securities purchase agreement, Neurogene is selling 1,835,000 shares of its common stock at $50.00 per share, and it is selling pre-funded warrants to purchase 2,165,042 shares of common stock at $49.999 per pre-funded warrant. The pre-funded warrants have an exercise price of $.001 per share. If all the pre-funded warrants are exercised, approximately 21.0 million shares of common stock will be outstanding.
The oversubscribed PIPE financing, expected to close around Nov. 5, includes participation from RTW Investments, Casdin Capital, EcoR1 Capital, Redmile Group, Great Point Partners, Commodore Capital, and Samsara BioCapital.
New York-based Neurogene said it will use the net proceeds from the PIPE financing to finish enrolling a registrational trial for its investigational gene therapy NGN-401 for Rett syndrome and scale up chemistry, manufacturing, and controls activities to support registrational activities for that asset.
Neurogene last year launched an open-label, single-arm Phase I/II clinical trial, in which it began testing NGN-401 in female pediatric patients with Rett syndrome, a rare and progressive disorder affecting brain development that is caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. Earlier this year, the firm began testing a high dose of this gene therapy in the same trial.
NGN-401 uses an adeno-associated virus serotype 9 vector to deliver a full-length, functional copy of the MECP2 gene. The US Food and Drug Administration selected the gene therapy candidate to be a part of its Support for clinical Trials Advancing Rare disease Therapeutics, or START, pilot program.
The company will also use the funds from the PIPE financing to continue developing its gene therapy pipeline and for general corporate purposes. The net proceeds from the financing plus the existing cash and cash equivalents that Neurogene has will fund operations into the second half of 2027, the company said.
TD Cowen, Leerink Partners, Stifel, and William Blair are joint placement agents for the private placement.