Per the agreement, Evotec gains access to intellectual property (IP) related to CRISPR-Cas9. The company will use the technology to further its drug discovery offerings and R&D activities.
Specifically, Evotec said it will use CRISPR-Cas9 to develop research tools and identify targets to strengthen its post phenotypical screening target deconvolution platform.
As BioPharma-Reporter.com previously reported, CRISPR-Cas9 is a tool for gene editing that is faster and more precise than traditional options. Interest in the technology has grown over the past two years with significant investments from Big Biopharma.
Several other entities have already established licensing agreements for the gene-editing technology, including Bayer, which announced the agreement in May of this year. The agreement was part of investment by the Bayer LifeScience Center (BLSC), a new R&D unit of the company focusing on developing breakthroughs by creating novel platforms.
British life science entrepreneur and investor, Jim Mellon, previously told us that the future of the technology lies in developing therapies to treat orphan diseases.
“There are 7,000 orphan diseases and some huge companies have been built on these – Alexion and Shire for example – and if we could actually eliminate these then the industry will be doing a great service for mankind,” he said.