BioPharma, Pharma

CRISPR Therapeutics, ViaCyte partner on diabetes therapies

In a deal worth up to $25 million for ViaCyte, the companies will work together to create allogeneic stem cell therapies to treat the disease.

Two companies have teamed up to use gene-editing technology develop new treatments for diabetes.

CRISPR Therapeutics and ViaCyte said Monday that they would would work together to develop gene-edited allogeneic stem cell therapies for the disease. ViaCyte will receive a payment of $15 million from CRISPR, paid either in cash or in stock, at CRISPR’s discretion. ViaCyte also has the option to receive an additional $10 million in the form of a convertible promissory note. ViaCyte is a privately held regenerative medicine company based in San Diego, while CRISPR is based in Zug, Switzerland, with research and development operations in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The aim is to use CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology develop allogeneic cells that can evade the immune system. ViaCyte’s product candidates are based on the derivation of pancreatic progenitor cells from stem cells that are implanted in cell-delivery deices. Its lead product candidate is PEC-Direct, which delivers the cells in a non-immunoprotective device and is being developed for Type 1 diabetes.

The announcement comes one week after a panel of federal judges ruled in favor of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in a patent interference suit filed by the University of California Berkeley, whose technology CRISPR in-licensed. The ruling, by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, affirmed an earlier decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that did not determine which institution first invented CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing technology and leaves UC Berkeley with few options to appeal.

In addition to CRISPR, Intellia Therapeutics and Caribou Biosciences had also licensed UC Berkeley’s technology, while Editas Medicines had in-licensed Broad’s. Shares of CRISPR, Intellia and Editas – Caribou is not publicly traded – were mostly unaffected by the news last Monday. CRISPR’s shares were trading at $50.95 Monday afternoon, down by more than 9 percent from their morning high of $56.13.

Photo: Natali_Mis, Getty Images

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