Editas Medicine and Genevant Sciences will collaborate to develop gene editing therapies, employing their respective CRISPR and LNP technologies under a nonexclusive licencing agreement.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Editas will combine its CRISPR/Cas12a gene editing system with the lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology of Genevant, based in Basel, Switzerland.
The technological merge is intended to produce in vivo gene editing medicines targeting two undisclosed targets, in line with Editas’ therapeutic strategy of genetic upregulation. The agreement stipulates that Genevant grant Editas a nonexclusive, worldwide licence to the products that come from their collaboration. In return, Genevant is eligible to receive up to $283m in upfront and milestone payments, along with royalties on future sales.
Dr. Linda Burkly and Dr. James Heyes, CSOs of Editas and Genevant, respectively, both expressed the complementary fit between their companies’ technologies.
The announcement was met with increased trading of Editas stock as over 4.5 million shares swapped hands that day, up from just over 860,000 traded at market close the previous Friday (18 October). The company’s market cap currently stands at $310m.
In the last few years, Editas has since entered into licencing deals to balance its finances; in December 2023 it licenced its technology to Vertex for $100m, and in October 2024 traded part of the revenue from this deal to a subsidiary of DRI Healthcare in return for a $57m payment.
Amongst the licences traded was one concerning Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel), the world’s first CRISPR-based gene therapy. The asset, approved to treat sickle cell disease and beta thalassaemia, is projected by GlobalData to generate an annual $857m for Vertex by 2030.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
Editas’s current lead candidate, renizgamglogene autogedtemcel, is a CRISPR/Cas12a-based therapy in a Phase III trial for sickle cell disease (NCT04853576) and a Phase II trial for beta thalassaemia (NCT05444894). The therapy gained orphan drug designations for both indications from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023.
Genevant has also licenced its LNP technology to others. In July 2018 it collaborated with BioNTech to develop rare disease therapies, and in March 2022 agreed a collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical to develop gene therapies for liver disease.
