GENE ONLINE|News &
Opinion
Blog

2018-09-17| Technology

Ceasefire update on CRISPR’s USA patent battle

by GeneOnline
Share To

By Ajay V. Patil

There was a clear standoff in the CRISPR patent battle between University of California, and Broad Institute, USA. This is a short commentary on the latest decision of U.S. Court of Appeals rejecting ‘intervention claims’ of University of California over Broad Institute’s CRISPR patents.

The breakthrough platform of CRISPR-CAS9 was first introduced by Dr. Jennifer Doudna’s group from University of California, Berkeley. It has been discussed at length for its potential to impact all the therapeutic areas at once through molecular editing. However this patent do not focus on the use of nucleases other than Cas9 that could work with CRISPR. Dr. Feng Zhang and group from Broad Institute worked on such aspects of CRISPR and used other nucleases like Cpf1 to engineer and edit the genomes of human and eukaryotic cells. Both parties were awarded separate patents from USPTO. In fact future inventors who will use other nucleases in combination with CRISPR could potentially apply for more patents. Although, the buzz around this patent clash originating from ‘first to invent’ overtones is slowly settling due to considerable acknowledgement received by both parties, the struggle will continue for benefits that will come from wide commercial application interest of these patents in the biotech industry.

Notably, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit stated on Monday, September 10, 2018 that, the U.S. patent office’s decision claiming “no interference” of Broad Institute’s CRISPR patents with that of University of California, Berkeley’s was right and to be upheld. This is almost the final word on the case unless University of California decides to move in higher court. Biotech industry took a sigh of relief in the final decision as some companies invested in future growth of this technology with the support of non-exclusive licenses issued by Broad Institute for the technology. It is important to realize and protect the immediate applications of this technology in important sections of pharma and biotech research. USA has granted French cell therapy group Cellectis two patents to use CRISPR technology for the development of allogenic CART cell therapy.

Interestingly, unlike the American chapter, European side of this patent struggle is in the favor of UC Berkeley and Emmanuelle Charpentier (Doudna’s collaborator on early CRISPR technology from Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin and coauthor of key patents). It is certainly not the end of this epic patent battle in science. But we hope that these legal impediments will not hinder the improvement and application of this promising technology in future research and therapy development.

References:

1. https://www.genomeweb.com/business-news/federal-court-hands-broad-institute-victory-crispr-patent-fight-against-uc-berkeley#.W59Y8FUzbIU
2. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/broad-institute-takes-hit-european-crispr-patent-struggle
3. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cellectis-gene/frances-cellectis-wins-u-s-patents-for-gene-editing-technology-idUSKBN1FX0EO

 

 

©www.geneonline.com All rights reserved. Collaborate with us: service@geneonlineasia.com
Related Post
Sanofi Inks Two Major Strategic R&D Collaborations in a Single Week
2023-07-24
M&A
Sherlock Biosciences Buys Sense Biodetection to Accelerate CRISPR-Based Handheld Diagnostic Tests
2023-02-02
R&D
Treating Common Heart Disease with CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing
2022-12-27
LATEST
Ginkgo Bioworks and Pfizer Forge $331 Million Collaboration for RNA-Based Drug Discovery
2023-09-29
Johnson & Johnson Partners with Singapore to Boost Life Sciences Innovation
2023-09-28
Vietnam and South Korea Strengthen Cooperation in Multiple Sectors
2023-09-27
PeptiDream and Genentech Collaborate on Novel Peptide-Radioisotope Drug Conjugates
2023-09-27
AcuraStem and Takeda Collaborate on Innovative ALS Treatment
2023-09-27
Seven AI/ML for Life Sciences Companies Identified as Innovators in New Clarivate Companies to Watch Report
2023-09-27
GeneOnline’s Weekly News Highlights: Sept 17-Sept 22
2023-09-26
EVENT
2023-10-04
BioFuture 2023
New York city,USA
Scroll to Top