Editas Medicine Announces U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Affirms Favorable U.S. Patent and Trademark Office De...
September 10 2018 - 1:58PM
Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ: EDIT), a leading genome editing
company, announced today that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO) decision that ended the U.S. patent interference
between the University of California, the University of
Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, UC) and
the Broad Institute, Inc. (Broad) concerning certain
CRISPR/Cas9 patents Editas Medicine exclusively licenses from
Broad. This favorable action by the CAFC upholds the USPTO decision
issued in February 2017, granting Broad’s motion for no
interference-in-fact.
“We are pleased with the Federal Circuit’s decision affirming
the Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision on the patents that were
granted to the Broad Institute for its innovative and
fundamental work on CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing,” said Katrine
Bosley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Editas Medicine.
“This decision is highly favorable for Editas and for the Broad as
it reaffirms the strength of our intellectual property foundation
and has profound implications for making CRISPR medicines.”
Editas Medicine’s foundational intellectual property includes
issued patents covering fundamental aspects of both CRISPR/Cas9 and
CRISPR/Cpf1 (also known as CRISPR/Cas12a) gene editing. The patents
broadly cover CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cpf1 gene editing in
eukaryotic cells, which includes all human cells. Successfully
editing this cell type is essential to making CRISPR-based
medicines. Overall, the Company holds a wide range of fundamental
intellectual property directed to all of the components of its
genome editing platform as well as product-enabling and
product-specific intellectual property.
In 2014, the USPTO granted the first of several foundational
patents to Broad with broad claims covering CRISPR/Cas9 in
eukaryotic cells. In 2016, the USPTO declared an interference
proceeding between Broad and UC that involved several of Broad’s
issued CRISPR patents. While scientists in both groups had made
important scientific contributions to the field, this proceeding
was initiated by the USPTO to determine which of the two groups
first invented the use of CRISPR/Cas9 for editing DNA in eukaryotic
cells.
In February 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the USPTO
determined that the patent claims that had been granted to Broad
were separately patentable from, and thus, do not interfere with,
the claims of the UC application. This ruling ended the
interference proceeding and upheld Broad’s fundamental CRISPR/Cas9
patents as originally granted. Today’s decision affirms that USPTO
decision from February 2017. The Broad patents continue to be valid
and in force. Foundational claims covering the use of CRISPR/Cas9
for gene editing in eukaryotic cells have also issued to Broad as
patents in each of the United States, Europe, and Australia.
About Editas MedicineAs a
leading genome editing company, Editas Medicine is focused on
translating the power and potential of the CRISPR/Cas9 and
CRISPR/Cpf1 genome editing systems into a robust pipeline of
treatments for people living with serious diseases around the
world. Editas Medicine aims to discover, develop, manufacture, and
commercialize transformative, durable, precision genomic medicines
for a broad class of diseases. For the latest information and
scientific presentations, please visit
www.editasmedicine.com.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release
contains forward-looking statements and information within the
meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
The words ‘‘anticipate,’’ ‘‘believe,’’ ‘‘continue,’’ ‘‘could,’’
‘‘estimate,’’ ‘‘expect,’’ ‘‘intend,’’ ‘‘may,’’ ‘‘plan,’’
‘‘potential,’’ ‘‘predict,’’ ‘‘project,’’ ‘‘target,’’ ‘‘should,’’
‘‘would,’’ and similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking
statements contain these identifying words. The Company may
not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations
disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and you should not
place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans,
intentions and expectations disclosed in these forward-looking
statements as a result of various factors, including: uncertainties
inherent in the initiation and completion of preclinical studies
and clinical trials and clinical development of the Company’s
product candidates; availability and timing of results from
preclinical studies and clinical trials; whether interim results
from a clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of
the trial or the results of future trials; expectations for
regulatory approvals to conduct trials or to market products and
availability of funding sufficient for the Company’s foreseeable
and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital expenditure
requirements. These and other risks are described in greater
detail under the caption “Risk Factors” included in the Company’s
most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which is on file with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, and in other filings that
the Company may make with the Securities and Exchange Commission in
the future. Any forward-looking statements contained in this
press release speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company
expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking
statements, whether because of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Contacts:MediaCristi
Barnett(617) 401-0113 cristi.barnett@editasmed.com
InvestorsMark Mullikin(617)
401-9083mark.mullikin@editasmed.com
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