Scribe Therapeutics Inc., a company creating genetic medicines through its CRISPR by Design approach to genetic modification, has announced a strategic collaboration with Prevail Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company.
The deal gives Prevail exclusive rights to Scribe Therapeutics’ CRISPR X-Editing (XE) technologies for the development of in vivo therapies directed to specified targets known to cause serious neurological and neuromuscular diseases.
“We are thrilled to work with the Prevail team to advance potential treatments for patients facing debilitating genetic diseases,” said Benjamin Oakes, chief executive officer of Scribe Therapeutics.
“With the compelling in vivo proof-of-principle data we have generated in multiple disease areas, Scribe has validated our X-Editing technologies for industry-leading editing activity, specificity and deliverability. Our goal now is to more broadly enable therapies to help people living with these conditions. We are energized by our team’s progress and excited to begin this important work with Prevail.”
Scribe Therapeutics’ platform, enabled by the company’s proprietary CRISPR by Design approach, is the first of its kind, applying holistic engineering to transform bacterial immune systems into therapeutically-relevant genome-editing technologies targeting the specific needs of patients.
The company’s tools for in vivo genome editing directly modify genes within the body, offering several key benefits in safety, efficacy and delivery over existing methods.
Deal terms
Under the terms of the agreement, Scribe Therapeutics will receive $75 million, consisting of an upfront payment and equity investment in the form of a convertible note, and is eligible to receive more than $1.5 billion in development and commercial milestone payments. In addition, Prevail will pay research funding and tiered royalties ranging into the low double-digits on net future sales.
Scribe Therapeutics also has the right to opt-in to co-fund and share profits in the U.S. on one collaboration program.
Last year, Scribe Therapeutics granted Sanofi non-exclusive rights to Scribe’s proprietary CRISPR platform to create ex vivo natural killer cell therapies.
About Scribe Therapeutics
Scribe Therapeutics is a molecular engineering company creating optimized genetic medicines through its CRISPR by Design approach. Founded by CRISPR inventors and leading molecular engineers Benjamin Oakes, Brett Staahl, David Savage, and Jennifer Doudna, Scribe pioneered CRISPR by Design to transform bacterial immune systems into therapeutically active genetic medicines with industry-leading activity, specificity, and deliverability.
The company’s first wave of wholly-owned CRISPR gene editing systems engineers a novel foundation of the CRISPR-CasX molecule into X-Editors with proven enhancements across an array of therapeutic characteristics. Scribe Therapeutics’ platform constantly improves and expands its genome modification technologies by leveraging all previous iterations of CRISPR technology to open up additional modes, including a second wave of technology enabling epigenetic long-term repression for safer, more efficient treatment of diseases with broader patient populations.
Partnering 2030: The Biotech Perspective 2023
