Oct 27, 2026 —
Plowshare Therapies, a gene therapy company led by Kevin Strauss of the Clinic for Special Children, is developing PLOW-101, an adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy for maple syrup urine disease (MSUD), and has raised $6.7 million to move it forward. The program is licensed from UMass Chan Medical School.
MSUD is an inherited metabolic disorder in which the body cannot break down branched-chain amino acids, leading to toxic buildup that can be fatal in newborns. It is unusually common in Amish and Mennonite communities, and Plowshare has drawn financial backing from those same communities, which it aims to serve. The company has set a target price of roughly $300,000 per treatment, far below typical gene therapy list prices.
In a widely covered proof of concept, researchers treated a calf with a bovine form of MSUD, delivering the corrective genes with a virus and keeping the animal alive through the critical newborn window. Human trials have not yet begun. OXB has been named as the GMP manufacturing partner for the AAV program.
