Excision Bio licenses CRISPR technology from UC Berkeley
Excision BioTherapeutics has become the first company to secure exclusive licences from the University of California (UC), Berkeley for “newly discovered” CRISPR gene editors.
Excision is focused on the development and commercialisation of advanced gene-editing therapeutics for the treatment of life-threatening disease caused by viruses.
As part of the deal, Excision has secured licences to explore the gene editors as they relate to infectious diseases, including the Herpes simplex virus.
The licences also give Excision the right to sub-license these editors to others.
CRISPR/Cas9, a gene-editing technique that can target and modify DNA with high accuracy, has been at the centre of a dispute between UC Berkeley and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the US.
In February this year, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruled that the Broad Institute’s patents concerning CRISPR technology do not interfere with patent claims filed by UC Berkeley and the University of Vienna.
According to the PTAB, the Broad Institute provided sufficient evidence to show that its claims, which are all limited to CRISPR/Cas9 systems in a eukaryotic environment, do not interfere with UC Berkeley’s claims, which are not restricted to any environment.
UC Berkeley, the University of Vienna and Jennifer Doudna, of UC Berkeley, turned to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in April, and in July, LSIPR outlined the brief they submitted.
Thomas Malcolm, founder, president and CEO of Excision, said of the licensing deal with UC Berkeley: “The discoveries made by the Doudna and Jillian Banfield laboratories open up so many possibilities.
“As a result of their incredible work to develop these alternatives in the gene-editing space, we can now take our expertise and intellectual property and make significant progress in medical treatment options for some of the world’s worst infectious diseases.”
Doudna was selected in the LSIPR 50 2017 publication for her influence on the life sciences industry. Her profile can be viewed here.
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