Abstract

Passage Bio, a new start-up cofounded by University of Pennsylvania professor James Wilson, has raised $115.5 million in series A financing to develop gene therapies for rare genetic diseases of the central nervous system. Wilson’s research on adeno-associated viruses (AAVs), which are used to deliver DNA into cells, has been instrumental in catalyzing a gene-therapy boom. In 2009, Wilson helped found the AAV-based company Regenxbio. It now licenses AAVs to 11 other companies, including Novartis, which expects its experimental therapy Zolgensma to soon become the second gene therapy ever approved in the US. Wilson wanted to start a new company that he could be intimately involved with, explains Stephen Squinto, a partner at the venture capital firm OrbiMed Advisors and current CEO of Passage. After visiting Wilson’s lab at Penn, Squinto devised a unique arrangement for the new start-up. “He runs his gene-therapy center like you’d run a very efficient

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