James Wilson’s Passage Bio raises $110 million

Passage Bio, a gene therapy start-up cofounded by University of Pennsylvania scientist James Wilson (see page 32), has raised $110 million in series B financing from over 10 venture capital firms. Passage focuses on rare genetic neurological diseases. It will use the money to begin testing therapies for GM1 gangliosidosis and frontotemporal dementia in the first half of 2020, along with a therapy for Krabbe disease in the second half. Passage also plans clinical trials in 2021 for Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy and two other unnamed diseases, and it has the option to license gene therapies from Wilson’s lab for 6 additional diseases. Catalent recently agreed to build a viral gene therapy manufacturing suite for Passage.