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Everyone wants to invest in CRISPR Therapeutics, it seems. The Basel and Cambridge, US biotech has raised more money for its ongoing Series B round, bringing the total to over €126M.
The authorization for the first CRISPR trials have just arrived in the hands of the FDA, and this might have encouraged new investment.
CRISPR Therapeutics is one of the examples. The biotech founded with Emmanuelle Charpentier‘s intellectual property (one of the co-discoverers of the CRISPR/Cas9 system) had already raised nearly €80M, and as the CEO Rodger Novak said at Refresh, “we have over $250M in the bank”.
Enthusiasm appears just as strong now, as CRISPR Therapeutics just raised an additional €34M ($38M) from institutional investors and healthcare funds.
While not all of the investors were disclosed, some of the new players are Franklin Templeton Investments (investment firm from the US) and New Leaf Venture Partners (a healthcare VC also from the US, which has invested in companies like Intarcia).
These new investors join the dream team that CRISPR Therapeutics has put together, which include Versant Ventures (one of the biggest Biotech VCs out there) as the founding investor, Celgene, GSK (through SR One) and Abingworth (a top European VC).
Then there are the other investors in this Series B round: Vertex Pharmaceuticals (who signed a €2.29Bn deal) and Bayer Global Investments, which was part of its €275M collaboration. In the end, this long Series B has raised over €126M ($140M). It should be enough for some time and to postpone the need to IPO (as Editas and Intellia did).
Feature Image Credit: Leaf cutting ants at the London Butterfly House in Syon Park (CC 2.0 William Warby)
