NEWS

CRISPR Therapeutics raises $56 million patent dispute threatens to become a ticking time bomb

Release time:

2016-10-28 15:28

CRISPR as a new gene editing tool with great commercial value, the nine-month CRISPR patent war has now taken an unexpected turn. Recently, the defense lawyer of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the research institutions competing for the CRISPR patent, submitted an application that can make it a winner even if it loses the lawsuit. The new "player" in this dramatic incident, a French biopharmaceutical company called Cellectis, said that it had just obtained a patent license covering a wide range of gene editing methods including CRISPR, thus making the whole war meaningless.

With its unprecedented ability to edit DNA, CRISPR has enabled people to discover a new world of genetic modification. People have seen its great value, so there has been a long-standing dispute about the patent ownership of this technology.

Within a few years, the CRISPR-based genome editing market will reach billions of dollars a year. A more optimistic estimate is that this is a huge market with annual sales of nearly $50 billion. In the face of CRISPR/Cas9, a technology with huge potential economic benefits, whoever owns its intellectual property rights has the potential to maximize market returns.

CRISPR/Cas9 technology has become a supernova in the field of gene editing. Behind this technology is the huge market potential to overcome some genetic diseases and even cancer. A large number of biomedical companies based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology are also competing to seize this huge market. Recently, after Editas and Intellia, CRISPR Therapeutics, the third biomedical company based on CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, announced an IPO and landed on the Nasdaq market. The company has issued 4 million shares at $14 per share, raising a total of $56 million. However, the patent dispute over CRISPR/Cas9 technology has always been like a sword of Damocles, hanging over many similar companies. Exactly who is the real owner of this technology is still unknown, so the biggest winner in the CRISPR/Cas9 market is still up in the air.

Previously, Editas and Intellia conducted IPOs in February and May this year, respectively, raising $94.4 million and $108,000,000 respectively. In this CRISPR Therapeutics IPO, Bayer has become its staunchest ally. The company contributed to the purchase of 2.5 million shares. In addition, the company has established a joint venture with CRISPR Therapeutics called Casebia Therapeutics. Previously, Bayer owned Therapeutics8 percent of CRISPR, while Celgene and Glaxo's investment companies owned 12.4 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively.

However, some analysts believe that IPOs are not necessarily good for companies. First, the ownership of the technology is not clear; second, the technology is currently only in laboratory research, although Chinese and American scientists are competing to push the first CRISPR-based therapy into the clinic, but the relevant field still lacks sufficient proof-of-concept research data.

In fact, even the two "predecessors" of the CRISPR Therapeutics-Editas and Intellia-have performed poorly in the capital markets recently. The shares of the two companies have now fallen below their IPO prices.

Therefore, who can pick the big fruit of "gene magic shear" is still up in the air.