Joint Venture Formed to Commercialize CRISPR/Cas9 Gene-Editing Technology

An agreement has been signed creating a joint venture (JV) to enable biopharmaceutical partners to commercialize and explore new uses for CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology.

Bayer (Leverkusen, Germany) and CRISPR Therapeutics (Basel, Switzerland) have entered into an agreement to create a joint venture to discover, develop, and commercialize new breakthrough therapeutics based on CRISPR-Cas9 technology.

The JV, which will be based in London (United Kingdom), with operations in Cambridge (MA, USA), is the first investment to be made by the newly established Bayer LifeScience Center, which operates as a novel strategic innovation unit in Bayer directly reporting to Bayer's management board. The LifeScience Center has the mission to uncover, encourage, and unlock fundamental scientific and medical breakthroughs more rapidly by enabling innovative partnerships with entrepreneurial best-in-class biotechnology companies like CRISPR Therapeutics.

CRISPR Therapeutics will contribute its proprietary CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology and intellectual property, while Bayer will make available its protein engineering expertise and relevant disease know-how. Bayer will provide a minimum of USD 300 million in R&D investments to the JV over the next five years. In addition, Bayer will acquire a minority stake in CRISPR Therapeutics for USD 35 million in cash.

Bayer will have exclusive rights to use CRISPR Therapeutics’ proprietary CRISPR-Cas9 technology and intellectual property in three targeted disease areas, including blood disorders, blindness, and congenital heart diseases. CRISPR Therapeutics will have exclusive access to Bayer’s protein engineering experience for use in CRISPR Therapeutics' products as well as Bayer’s extensive expertise and knowledge in the three targeted disease areas. Innovations from collaboration based on the CRISPR-Cas9 system beyond the three disease areas, will be exclusively made available to CRISPR Therapeutics for human-use, and to Bayer for non-human use, such as agricultural applications.

“The new Bayer LifeScience Center and the partnership with CRISPR Therapeutics are representative of Bayer’s more than 150-year tradition of developing scientific innovations that dramatically improve lives,” said Dr. Marijn Dekkers, CEO of Bayer AG. “Bayer and CRISPR Therapeutics are philosophically and financially aligned in our mission to develop game-changing or possibly curative treatments for serious human genetic diseases.”

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CRISPR Therapeutics