- Bayer (OTCPK:BAYRY) and privately held CRISPR Therapeutics create a joint venture (JV) to discover, develop and commercialize new therapeutics to cure genetic diseases, specifically blindness, congenital heart disease and blood disorders, utilizing CRISPR's gene-editing technology, CRISPR-Cas9. Bayer will contribute its protein engineering expertise and relevant disease know-how.
- The London-based JV is the first investment by Bayer's newly created Bayer LifeScience Center, a strategic innovation unit reporting directly to the Board of Management.
- Under the terms of the JV, Bayer may secure exclusive rights to use CRISPR's gene-editing technology and intellectual property in the three targeted disease areas while CRISPR Therapeutics may gain exclusive access to Bayer's protein engineering know-how and disease expertise. Newly created know-how from the partnership will be exclusive to CRISPR Therapeutics for human use and exclusive to Bayer for agricultural applications. Specific financial terms are not disclosed.
- CRISPR-Cas9 is the "next big thing" in biotech because of its unprecedented precision in editing DNA. CRISPR, the acronym for "clustered, regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats," uses RNA to guide the molecular scissors, the Cas9 enzyme, to a specific DNA sequence where it makes a specific cut in the DNA and triggers the cell's DNA repair machinery to address the genetic defect.
- Previously: Leading gene editing firm Editas Medicine on deck for IPO (Jan. 25)