BOULDER, Colo. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.– Inscripta, Inc., the digital genome engineering company, today announced that it has granted a non-exclusive license to Hunterian Medicine®, a gene-editing and gene therapy company, for access to the MAD7™ nuclease, one of several CRISPR nucleases in Inscripta’s MADzymes™ family of enzymes. Inscripta has introduced a new commercial licensing model for biopharma companies that further democratizes access to CRISPR-based gene-editing.
Under the terms of its license, Hunterian will have the right to use the MAD7 nuclease or improved MADzyme nucleases in its gene-editing programs to develop human therapeutics. This complements Hunterian’s proprietary technology that enables in vivo delivery of CRISPR via a single adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector.
Hunterian is the first biopharmaceutical organization to license the MAD7 nuclease under Inscripta’s commercial licensing program. Inscripta originally released the MAD7 nuclease free for academic and commercial R&D in 2017. Today’s announcement represents an extension of Inscripta’s licensing program to expand access to CRISPR and address limitations in CRISPR-based therapeutic development and commercialization.
“The vast therapeutic potential of gene-editing has one primary barrier: Delivery. Hunterian solved this problem by enabling CRISPR systems to fit inside a single AAV, the gold standard for gene delivery,” said Dr. Vinny Jaskula-Ranga, President and CEO of Hunterian Medicine. “Inscripta is similarly reducing barriers to innovation by providing access to its MAD7 nuclease and other improved MADzyme nucleases. For therapeutic indications, MAD7 is a particularly important alternative to commonly used Cas9 nucleases given that it has significantly fewer off-target effects.”
“Gene-editing has demonstrated vast potential for breakthrough innovation in multiple industries. We see incredible opportunity and potential for CRISPR in therapeutic applications; however, we constantly hear biopharma companies talk about limitations in their access,” said Sri Kosaraju, President and CEO of Inscripta. “By providing more flexible access to MADzyme nucleases to companies such as Hunterian, Inscripta believes that we can help drive scientific progress and expand the use of CRISPR across more application areas and industries in the bioeconomy. We look forward to working with Hunterian to enable their AAV-based gene-editing programs to address significant unmet medical needs.” (IANS)
