DB-OTO

iStock, SvetaZi Regeneron promised to comply with 23andMe’s consumer privacy policies and related data security laws. Regeneron is snapping up the embattled genetic testing company 23andMe for $256 million, the winning bid in a bankruptcy auction, the pharma announced on Monday. The court-supervised agreement will still be subject to the approval of a bankruptcy court, as well as other regulatory clearances. If the deal pushes through, however, Regeneron on Monday promised that it will maintain all of 23andMe’s “consumer genome services uninterrupted.” 23andMe will continue operating as a subsidiary of Regeneron. Aside from its DNA testing services, Regeneron will also get 23andMe’s Total Health platform , which offers comprehensive testing—including exome sequencing and blood biomarker analysis—with an eye toward assessing longevity, as well as the company’s research operations which has been involved in studies on the genetics of bipolar disorder and dyslexia, creating antibodies against solid tumor indications, and genome-wide association studies of myasthenia gravis. The pharma will also gain control over 23andMe’s biobank, and Regeneron promises to “prioritize the privacy, security and ethical use of 23andMe’s customer data,” according to Monday’s release. Lemonaid Health , 23andMe’s telehealth platform with a particular focus on women’s, men’s and mental health services, will not be part of Regeneron’s acquisition. 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, asking a Missouri court to allow the company to “sell substantially all of its assets.” The court approved the company’s bankruptcy bid a few days later with the express requirement that potential buyers must agree to comply with 23andMe’s privacy policy and other applicable laws. 23andMe solicited bids thereafter. The company’s former CEO Anne Wojcicki, who at one point held a significant percentage of shares and voting rights, tried multiple times to take the company private but was ultimately rejected by a special committee of independent directors of the company. 23andMe has been in financial trouble for years . When it went public in 2021, the company was valued at $3.5 billion . During its fiscal year 2023, however, 23andMe reported a net loss of $312 million. In November 2024, the company was forced to slash its headcount by around 40%—or 200 employees—in a bid to keep the business afloat. For Regeneron, the 23andMe acquisition could help the company beef up its business after a disappointing Q1 that analysts at BMO Capital Markets expect to lead into a “messy quarter” as the pharma tries to regain its footing. Sales of Regeneron’s Eylea franchise dropped 26% year-on-year, bringing in $1.04 billion in the U.S. The 23andMe acquisition could also help Regeneron bolster its gene therapy pipeline. In February, the pharma announced that DB-OTO, an AAV-based gene therapy, could restore partial hearing in 10 of 12 children who were born with profound genetic hearing loss. None of the 12 treated patients developed adverse events. DB-OTO, which Regeneron obtained from the 2023 acquisition of Decibel Therapeutics for $109 million, works by delivering a functioning copy of the otoferlin gene, one of the main causes of congenital deafness. Regeneron is also advancing another hearing loss therapy, this once focused on GJB2-related deafness.

iStock, Feodora Chiosea Lilly will use Rznomics’ proprietary ribozyme technology to develop RNA editing therapies for congenital hearing loss. Eli Lilly has put up to $1.3 billion on the line to partner with South Korea’s Rznomics and gain access to the biotech’s novel RNA editors for hearing loss. Aside from the total deal value, details of Thursday’s arrangement remain sparse—the partners did not disclose how much Lilly is paying upfront, nor did they specify how many candidates they will collaborate on. Aside from the contract payments, including milestones, Rznomics will also be entitled to “separate royalties” on products that could come out of the partnership. The agreement will allow Lilly to leverage Rznomics’ proprietary trans-splicing ribozyme technology. The biotech’s approach makes use of a ribozyme, an RNA molecule that has enzymatic activity, loaded with a therapeutic RNA, as per its website . This complex molecule targets a disease-specific RNA, onto which the ribozyme splices its therapeutic payload, resulting in the expression of a specific gene that, in turn, could help manage certain diseases. Lilly aims to use this approach to address the heritable form of sensorineural hearing loss, one of the most common forms of hearing loss. Under the terms of Thursday’s partnership, Rznomics will be responsible for early-stage studies, following a “jointly approved” plan, after which Lilly will be in charge of further development and commercialization. Lilly has an ongoing project to target this same indication. In January 2024, the pharma announced that its investigational gene therapy AK-OTOF restored hearing in an 11-year-old boy within 30 days of treatment. After treatment with AK-OTOF, the boy’s hearing returned to the normal hearing range. AK-OTOF uses an adeno-associated virus vector to deliver a functional copy of the otoferlin gene directly to the hair cells in the inner cochlea. The therapy was originally developed by Akouos, which Lilly acquired for $487 million in October 2022. Joining Lilly in the hearing loss arena is Regeneron, which is also advancing a gene therapy dubbed DB-OTO. Like Lilly’s candidate, DB-OTO delivers a functional copy of the otoferlin gene to restore hearing in children with congenital hearing loss. Data released in May 2024 showed that the treatment could restore normal hearing within 24 weeks of infusion. Regeneron followed this up with a readout in February, showing that DB-OTO could restore at least partial hearing in 10 of 12 treated children who had profound hearing loss associated with otoferlin dysfunction.