A joint venture between gene-editing startup CRISPR Therapeutics and German pharmaceutical company Bayer will come under the control of CRISPR Therapeutics, according to the pairs proposed plans.

In an announcement published yesterday, October 21, CRISPR Therapeutics and Bayer proposed that the joint venture, Casebia Therapeutics, would focus on the development of its lead programmes in haemophilia, ophthalmology and autoimmune diseases.

The companies agreed to form Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Casebia Therapeutics in December 2015, with the aim of discovering, developing and commercialising new breakthrough therapeutics to cure blood disorders, blindness, and congenital heart diseases.

Samarth Kulkarni, CEO of CRISPR Therapeutics, said: As Casebia's programs have advanced beyond the discovery stage, we are evolving the operating model to leverage the manufacturing and clinical expertise of CRISPR Therapeutics to further accelerate these programmes.

Bayer will have opt-in rights for two products at investigational new drug application submissions.

Kemal Malik, Bayer board member for innovation, added: We remain excited about the potential of cutting-edge CRISPR/Cas9 based therapies, which have the potential to create a whole new class of medicines.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019.

In September, an alliance of companies that use gene-editing technologies (including CRISPR Therapeutics) released a bioethical framework, as controversy over gene-editing rages on.

The principles agree that the developers do not support germline gene editing (the process by which the genome of an individual is changed so that the change is heritable) in human clinical trials or for human implantation.

Last week, CRISPR Therapeutics announced that it had entered a licence agreement with biotech KSQ Therapeutics, gaining access to KSQs IP for editing certain novel gene targets in its allogeneic oncology cell therapy programmes.

KSQ gained access to CRISPR Therapeutics IP for editing novel gene targets identified by KSQ as part of its current and future cell programmes.

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Bayer, CRISPR Therapeutics, joint venture, CRISPR, gene-editing, haemophilia, ophthalmology, autoimmune diseases

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CRISPR Therapeutics to buy JV from Bayer - Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review

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