Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics announced that they have entered into a new non-exclusive licensing agreement for the use of CRISPR Therapeutics’ gene editing technology, known as CRISPR/Cas9, to accelerate the development of Vertex’s hypoimmune cell therapies for type 1 diabetes (T1D).
CRISPR Therapeutics to receive from Vertex $100M upfront payment on potential future gene-edited hypoimmune T1D products. CRISPR Therapeutics will be eligible for up to an additional $230 million in research and development milestones and receive royalties on any future products resulting from this agreement.
– We follow this kind of announcements with great interest. After a century without any new treatment, there is an influx of new drug candidates to treat type 1 diabetes. So good for our patients! Vertex approach differs from ours as they focus on stem cells in patients who suffer from diabetes for long periods. This technology allows regaining of insulin production in the body while we try to protect remaining pancreatic islets in recent-onset diabetes or before the symptoms – said prof. Piotr Trzonkowski, CEO of PolTREG S.A.
