CRISPR Therapeutics inks licensing deal worth up to USD 330 million

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics today announced that they have entered into a new non-exclusive licensing agreement for the use of CRISPR's gene editing technology, known as CRISPR/Cas9, to accelerate the development of Vertex's hypoimmune cell therapies for type-1 diabetes. CRISPR went public in 2016 and is a former TOP 100 Swiss Startup and Scale-Up.

CRISPR Therapeutics is a leading gene editing company focused on developing transformative gene-based medicines for serious diseases using its proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 platform. CRISPR/Cas9 is a revolutionary gene editing technology that allows for precise, directed changes to genomic DNA. CRISPR Therapeutics has established a portfolio of therapeutic programs across a broad range of disease areas including hemoglobinopathies, oncology, regenerative medicine, and rare diseases. To accelerate and expand its efforts, CRISPR Therapeutics has established strategic collaborations with leading companies including Bayer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and ViaCyte, Inc.

The agreement states that Vertex will pay CRISPR Therapeutics USD 100 million up-front for non-exclusive rights to CRISPR Therapeutics' technology for the development of hypoimmune gene-edited cell therapies for type-1 diabetes (T1D).

CRISPR Therapeutics will be eligible for up to an additional USD 230 million in research and development milestones and receive royalties on any future products resulting from this agreement.

"We are pleased to expand our long and successful relationship with Vertex with this collaboration which fully leverages our gene editing platform to develop hypoimmune cell therapies for T1D," said Samarth Kulkarni, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of CRISPR Therapeutics. "In parallel, we continue to expand our capabilities in regenerative medicine and advance our existing allogeneic gene-edited cell therapy programs."

CRISPR and ViaCyte, which was acquired by Vertex in 2022, will continue to collaborate on their existing gene-edited allogeneic stem cell therapies, using ViaCyte cells, for the treatment of diabetes under the terms of their collaboration. A Phase 1/2 study of VCTX211, an allogeneic, gene-edited, stem cell-derived product candidate for T1D, which originated under the CRISPR Therapeutics and ViaCyte collaboration, has been initiated and is ongoing. CRISPR Therapeutics will not obtain any interest in Vertex's pre-existing pipeline of T1D products, including VX-880 and VX-264.

CRISPR Therapeutics AG is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, with its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, CRISPR Therapeutics, Inc., and R&D operations in Boston and San Francisco.

Founded in 2013, the company was voted one of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups every year between 2015 and 2019. The startup raised USD 56 million with its IPO in October 2016 on the NASDAQ Global Market. The company also made the TOP 100 Scale-Up ranking in 2020 and 2021.