CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing has zoomed to the forefront of the biotech investment scape in the past year — punctuated this week by Editas Medicine‘s impressive $120 million fundraise. Looks like it’s no longer hype — there’s solid funding to pursue therapeutic applications for this revolutionary technology.
That oversubscribed Editas Series B drew in a top-notch circle of investors, including Bill Gates, Google Ventures and Deerfield Management, and validates its near-term presence in the market. Indeed, Google Ventures President Bill Maris recently extolled the value CRISPR/Cas9 as a technology to watch. And here we are.
The early rumblings were that we don’t have a scalable application for this powerful technology. Or, perhaps, the ethical concerns could outweigh the therapeutic promise of being able to splice and dice and reconfigure a genome. There have been challenges in delivering a CRISPR-edited gene in vivo.
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But that’s already turned quickly on its head.
Confidence is growing in the technology, as evidenced by the title of a fantastic Wired article: “Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World. Buckle Up.” And the broader scientific community is now calling for bioethicists to back off. Harvard experimental psychologist Steven Pinker put things quite succinctly in a Boston Globe editorial:
Given this potential bonanza, the primary moral goal for today’s bioethics can be summarized in a single sentence.
Get out of the way.
So what’s next? Well, there’s still only a smattering of CRISPR-focused companies in the biotech landscape. But that figure will undoubtedly swell.
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As more companies emerge, it’s worth reflecting on who actually owns the core CRISPR technology. The first patent dates back only to April 2014, and was awarded to Feng Zhang, a researcher at MIT’s Broad Institute.
However, there’s been a fairly ugly fight over who the actual intellectual property belongs to because Bay Area biologists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier actually filed first. The Bay Area duo won the patent rights after all, but it’s led to some fracturing among the the first wave of CRISPR startups. Given the way funding has scattered out, one must wonder which patent carries the most weight.
Current players (hat tip: Nanalyze) include:
- Editas Medicine It secured a $43 million Series A in 2013 — a solid precursor to the newest Series B. Editas has exclusive rights to Zhang’s patent, as well as exclusive IP agreements with Duke University and Massachusetts General.
- Intellia launched last year by Atlas Venture and Novartis with $15 million in funding.Doudna initially was a founder of Editas, but transferred her allegiance to this startup and is now listed a scientific founder of the company.
- Caribou Biosciences Another brainchild of Doudna, it raised an $11 million Series A announced in April.
- CRISPR Therapeutics is a Switzerland-based business co-founded by Charpentier and is working with a $25 million Series A.
- Cellectis The French billion-dollar company, is approaching CRISPR technology from a more agrarian perspective. It has the worldwide rights to a patent that should cover their stake in the game just fine.
- Precision Biosciences has what it calls a Directed Nuclease Editor platform that churns out the enzymes that can edit genes. The North Carolina startup closed a $25.6 million Series A this May.
- Sangamo Biosciences The publicly traded company has a separate gene editing technique, based on zinc-finger nucleases, that it’s pursuing as a way to cure HIV.
I spoke recently with Deerfield Management’s Jim Flynn about CRISPR technology, right on the heels of it raising a $550 million new fund. Deerfield poured $20 million into Editas.
“These things are really exciting, and are going to start coming to market soon,” Flynn said. “In the next year or two, you’re going to see a much more visible role and profile for CRISPR products being developed.”
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