Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) shares surged more than 13% on Wednesday after the company announced an agreement to license CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology from Editas Medicines.
In exchange for $100 million plus potential licensing fees, Vertex got non-exclusive licensing rights to medicines targeting the BCL11A gene in Sickle Cell Disease. That includes Casgevy, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this month.
Vertex could be the first of many companies to pay up for Editas’ intellectual property, analysts at Baird wrote in a note to clients.
“While it is still early days as it relates to the commercialization of CRISPR gene editing products, we believe [the] deal could set a precedent that others will need licenses of Editas' IP estate to operate in the for CRISPR-Cas9 space,” the analysts wrote.
“We see this deal as the first acknowledgment by the developer of a commercial therapy that a license of the Editas CRISPR-Cas9 IP estate will be necessary to operate in the US,” they added.