Ul­tragenyx in­jects $40M to grab Solid's mi­crody­s­trophin trans­gene — while side­step­ping the AAV9 vec­tor that stirred up safe­ty fears

Since be­fore Ilan Gan­ot start­ed Sol­id Bio to de­vel­op a gene ther­a­py for kids like his son, who has Duchenne mus­cu­lar dy­s­tro­phy, Ul­tragenyx CEO Emil Kakkis has been watch­ing and ad­vis­ing the for­mer in­vest­ment banker as he nav­i­gat­ed the deep wa­ters of drug de­vel­op­ment.

Just as Sol­id is get­ting back up on its feet af­ter a year­long clin­i­cal hold, Kakkis has de­cid­ed to jump in for a for­mal al­liance.

With a $40 mil­lion up­front, Ul­tragenyx is grab­bing 14.45% of Sol­id’s shares $SLDB and the rights to its mi­crody­s­trophin con­struct for use in com­bi­na­tion with AAV8 vec­tors. Sol­id’s lead pro­gram, which uti­lizes AAV9, re­mains un­af­fect­ed. The com­pa­ny al­so re­tains rights to oth­er ap­pli­ca­tions of its trans­gene.

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