Scribe Therapeutics and Prevail partners for CRISPR drugs

Scribe Therapeutics Inc., a company that creates genetic drugs through a CRISPR by Design approach to genetic modification, has announced a strategic partnership with Prevail Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company.

The deal grants Prevail the exclusive rights to Scribe Therapeutics’ CRISPR X-Editing (XE) technology for the development of targeted in vivo therapies known to cause serious neuromuscular and neuromuscular disease.

“We are excited to work with the Prevail team to advance potential treatments for patients facing debilitating genetic diseases,” said Benjamin Oakes, chief executive of Scribe Therapeutics.

“With the compelling in vivo proof-of-principle data we have generated in a variety of disease areas, Scribe has validated our X-Editing technology for industry-leading editing activity, specificity, and deliverability. Our goal now is to enable therapies more broadly to help people living with this condition. We are excited about our team’s progress and excited to begin this important work with Prevail.”

The Scribe Therapeutics platform, enabled by the company’s proprietary CRISPR by Design, is the first of its kind, applying holistic engineering to transform the bacterial immune system into therapeutically relevant genome editing technologies targeting the unique needs of patients.

The company’s tools for in vivo genome editing directly modify genes inside the body, offering several key benefits in safety, efficacy, and delivery over existing methods.

Agreement terms

Under the terms of the agreement, Scribe Therapeutics will receive $75 million, consisting of an advance payment and equity investment in a convertible note, and is entitled to receive more than $1.5 billion in development and commercial milestone payments. In addition, Prevail will pay a research grant and tiered royalties starting at the low double digits on future net sales.

Scribe Therapeutics is also eligible to co-finance and share profits in the US in a collaborative program.

Last year, Scribe Therapeutics granted Sanofi non-exclusive rights to Scribe’s CRISPR platform to manufacture ex vivo natural killer cell therapies.

About Scribe Therapeutics

Scribe Therapeutics is a molecular engineering company that creates genetically optimized drugs through the CRISPR by Design approach. Founded by CRISPR inventors and distinguished molecular engineers Benjamin Oakes, Brett Staahl, David Savage, and Jennifer Doudna, Scribe pioneered CRISPR by Design to transform the bacterial immune system into therapeutically active genetic drugs with industry-leading activity, specificity, and deliverability.

The company’s first wave of wholly owned CRISPR gene editing systems engineered a new foundational CRISPR-CasX molecule into the X-Editor with proven improvements in a variety of therapeutic characteristics. The Scribe Therapeutics platform continues to improve and expand its genome modification technology by leveraging all previous iterations of CRISPR technology to unlock additional modes, including second-wave technologies that enable long-term epigenetic repression for safer and more efficient treatment of disease with wider patient populations.