Intellia Therapeutics Announces European Patent Office’s Decision to Grant CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing Technology Patent
April 11 2017 - 7:30AM
Intellia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NTLA), a leading genome editing
company focused on the development of potentially curative
therapeutics using CRISPR technology, announced that the European
Patent Office (EPO) has decided to grant a patent broadly covering
the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. The patent includes
claims covering compositions of the widely adopted CRISPR single
guide RNA technology for use in any non-cellular and cellular
setting, including eukaryotic cells such as human or mammalian
cells, as well as for use in human therapeutics.
According to the EPO, the patent will formally grant on May 10,
2017. The EPO’s decision to grant this patent follows its March 24,
2017 notice of intent to issue the patent, which was not challenged
by any third party. This European patent will be nationalized in,
and cover, approximately forty European countries, including
Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands. As provided by
relevant European legislation, third parties will have nine months
from the issue date to oppose the patent in the EPO.
In addition to the EPO decision, earlier this year, the United
Kingdom’s Intellectual Property Office granted national UK patents
on the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system. The UK patents cover the
single guide RNA for uses in both non-cellular and cellular
settings, as well as chimeric CRISPR/Cas9 systems in which the Cas9
protein is modified to provide alternative DNA-modulating
activities. The underlying international patent application is
based on a U.S. application, which was filed on May 25, 2012, by
the University of California on its own behalf and on behalf of the
University of Vienna and Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier. In the U.S.,
the corresponding application has been involved in an interference
proceeding with the Broad Institute, Harvard University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was terminated without
a decision on which sets of inventors were the first to discover
the application of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology to eukaryotic
cells.
“We are extremely pleased with this EPO outcome as it
recognizes Jennifer Doudna, Emmanuelle
Charpentier and their team as CRISPR/Cas9
pioneers, and also acknowledges the breadth of their
original patent application,” said Intellia Therapeutics CEO
and Founder, Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D. “Intellia continues to build
on the compelling preclinical data we have generated and to focus
on the development of our pipeline of novel
human therapeutics that will potentially transform the
lives of patients with genetic diseases.”
Intellia has rights to this intellectual property estate,
including the European and UK patents, for human therapeutic,
prophylactic, and palliative uses (including companion
diagnostics), excluding anti-fungal and anti-microbial
applications. Intellia obtained these rights through a 2014 license
agreement with Caribou Biosciences, Inc., which is the exclusive
licensee of the University of California and University of Vienna,
two of the co-owners of the intellectual property.
About Intellia Therapeutics
Intellia Therapeutics is a leading genome editing company,
focused on the development of proprietary, potentially curative
therapeutics using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. Intellia believes the
CRISPR/Cas9 technology has the potential to transform medicine by
permanently editing disease-associated genes in the human body with
a single treatment course. Intellia’s combination of deep
scientific, technical and clinical development experience, along
with its leading intellectual property portfolio, puts it in a
unique position to unlock broad therapeutic applications of the
CRISPR/Cas9 technology and create a new class of therapeutic
products. Learn more about Intellia Therapeutics and CRISPR/Cas9
at intelliatx.com; Follow us on Twitter @intelliatweets.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” of
Intellia within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements include, but
are not limited to, express or implied statements regarding the
formal issue date of the European patent and the nationalization of
the European patent in approximately forty countries; the
intellectual property position and strategy of Intellia’s
licensors; and Intellia’s ability to advance CRISPR/Cas9 into
therapeutic products for severe and life-threatening diseases and
its CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property portfolio. Any
forward-looking statements in this press release are based on
management’s current expectations of future events and are subject
to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in
or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to
Intellia’s ability to protect and maintain its intellectual
property position, risks related to the ability of Intellia’s
licensors to protect and maintain their intellectual property
position, the risk that any one or more of Intellia’s product
candidates will not be successfully developed and commercialized,
the risk of cessation or delay of any of the ongoing or planned
clinical trials and/or development of Intellia’s product
candidates, the risk that the results of previously conducted
studies involving similar product candidates will not be repeated
or observed in ongoing or future studies involving current product
candidates, and the risk that Intellia’s collaborations with
Novartis or Regeneron will not continue or will not be successful.
For a discussion of other risks and uncertainties, and other
important factors, any of which could cause Intellia’s actual
results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking
statements, see the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Intellia’s
most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, as well as discussions of potential risks,
uncertainties, and other important factors in Intellia’s subsequent
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All
information in this press release is as of the date of the release,
and Intellia Therapeutics undertakes no duty to update this
information unless required by law.
Intellia Contacts:
Media:
Jennifer Mound Smoter
Senior Vice President, External Affairs & Communications
+1 857-706-1071
jenn.smoter@intelliatx.com
Investors:
Graeme Bell
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
+1 857-706-1081
graeme.bell@intelliatx.com
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