Date: 6th June 2019
Vertex, a global biotech company based in Massachusetts, US, whose clinical development programme into cystitis fibrosis has produced the first medicines able to treat the underlying cause of this debilitating disease has today announced its movement into new disease areas through the extension of its collaboration with CRISPR therapeutics. In a deal worth up to $1 billion USD, this enables Vertex to use CRISPR therapeutic technologies in the search for new therapies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Myotonic Dystophy. In parallel to this, Vertex also announced the acquisition of Exonics Therapeutics, a US-based company utilising SingleCut CRISPR gene editing technology to develop therapies against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, for $245M USD with potential additional milestone payments.
The expansion of Vertex into a new disease area, does of course provide additional synergies and diversification, however, the acquisition of new IP and enabling genomic technologies is the potential game changer for Vertex here and gives them a solid platform in their search for novel genomic therapies.
https://investors.vrtx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/vertex-expands-new-disease-areas-and-enhances-gene-editing
