Passage Bio, a genetic medicines company co-founded by James A. Wilson, M.D, Ph.D. the Rose H. Weiss Professor in Penn Medicine who leads the Gene Therapy Program (GTP) and Orphan Disease Center at Penn, is developing transformative therapies for the treatment of rare monogenic central nervous system disorders. The company raised a total of $248.4 million through its initial public offering in March 2020, setting a new record for an IPO by a Philadelphia-area cell or gene therapy company.
Passage Bio continues to work closely with Penn and the GTP and recently announced a significant expansion of its current R&D alliance to include an additional five therapeutic product development programs. Under the expanded relationship, Passage Bio will fund additional discovery research to be conducted at Penn and GTP, and will receive exclusive license rights, subject to certain limitations, to technologies resulting from the discovery program for Passage Bio products developed in partnership with Penn.