CRISPR and MaxCyte sign licensing deal for cancer therapies

Swiss gene editing firm CRISPR Therapeutics has signed a non-exclusive commercial licence agreement with US-based drug maker MaxCyte for the development of new immuno-oncology therapies.

In March last year, the companies signed a deal for CRISPR to use MaxCyte’s Flow Electroporation Technology to develop commercial treatments for haemoglobin-related conditions.

The expanded agreement will provide CRISPR Therapeutics with non-exclusive development and commercial-use rights to apply the MaxCyte cell engineering platform for CRISPR/Cas9-based cancer therapeutics.

CRISPR Therapeutics CEO Samarth Kulkarni said: “As we advance our allogeneic CAR-T programmes into the clinic, we are preparing for the future by securing our access to the leading ex vivo delivery platform for both clinical and commercial use, just as we previously did for our hemoglobinopathy developmental candidates.”

“The expansion of our relationship with CRISPR Therapeutics signifies a key milestone for MaxCyte and our technology, providing further validation of our technology as a leading enabler of next-generation cell-based therapies.”

The Flow Electroporation Technology is designed to allow the engineering of various therapeutically-relevant cell types.

CRISPR Therapeutics will use the technology to deliver the CRISPR components of its immuno-oncology cell therapy programmes into T-cells.

MaxCyte president and CEO Doug Doerfler said: “The expansion of our relationship with CRISPR Therapeutics signifies a key milestone for MaxCyte and our technology, providing further validation for the value and versatility of our technology as a leading enabler of next-generation cell-based therapies.

“CRISPR Therapeutics is a leader in gene editing, and we are very pleased to expand our collaboration into new therapeutic areas as we continue to explore the use of our technology to advance medicines to market that will make a difference for patients.”

MaxCyte will supply the technology to CRISPR Therapeutics, and in turn obtain milestone and sales-based payments, as well as licensing fees.