• The com­pa­nies will con­tinue to col­lab­o­rate to discover and de­vel­op the next gen­er­a­tion of engi­neered alpha-beta T cells
• Editas Medicine to re­ceive a $70 million pay­ment and may be eli­gible for future mile­stone and royalty pay­ments

{{image}}Cambridge, MA (Press Release) – Editas Medicine, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDIT), a lead­ing genome edit­ing com­pany, to­day an­nounced an amended col­lab­o­ration with Celgene Corpo­ra­tion (Nasdaq: CELG) under which the parties may re­search, de­vel­op, and com­mer­cial­ize au­tol­o­gous and allo­geneic alpha-beta T cell med­i­cines for the treat­ment of cancer and auto­immune dis­eases. Under the terms of the amended agree­ment, Editas Medicine will re­ceive a pay­ment of $70 million.

“Celgene is the leader in ad­vanc­ing inno­va­tive cell med­i­cines to treat blood cancers, and we are ex­cited to ex­pand our prod­uctive work­ing rela­tion­ship with the Celgene team as we in­crease our com­mitment to ad­vanc­ing gene-edited cell med­i­cines in on­col­ogy and beyond,” said Charles Albright, Ph.D., Executive Vice Pres­i­dent and Chief Scientific Officer, Editas Medicine.

Under the terms of the amended agree­ment, Editas Medicine may de­vel­op genome edit­ing tools and Celgene will have rights to opt-in to such genome edit­ing tools for devel­op­ment of gene edited alpha-beta T cell ther­a­pies. For each new ex­per­i­men­tal med­i­cine that Celgene de­vel­ops and com­mer­cial­izes using opted-into genome edit­ing tools, Celgene will pay Editas Medicine poten­tial future mile­stone and royalty pay­ments.

Albright added, “In addi­tion to alpha-beta T cells and our work with Celgene, we are ex­panding our port­folio of gene edit­ing to in­clude mul­ti­ple immune sys­tem cell types that we be­lieve will be ef­fec­tive in making the next gen­er­a­tion of allo­geneic med­i­cines to fight many common cancers, in­clud­ing natural killer (NK) cells derived from both healthy donors and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).”

“Edited cell ther­a­pies have the poten­tial to trans­form the treat­ment of cancer and im­prove patient out­comes. In par­tic­u­lar, edit­ing T cells may en­hance the safety and ef­fi­cacy of au­tol­o­gous and allo­geneic med­i­cines targeting blood cancers, such as mul­ti­ple myeloma and lym­phoma, and also solid tumors,” said Rupert Vessey, M.A., B.M., B.Ch., F.R.C.P., D.Phil., Pres­i­dent, Research & Early De­vel­op­ment, Celgene. “The Celgene team con­tinues to be impressed by the progress the Editas team has made in devel­op­ing the lead­ing tech­nology for making CRISPR-based med­i­cines in our initial col­lab­o­ration. We look for­ward to this next phase of our col­lab­o­ration as we drive pro­grams from re­search into clin­i­cal devel­op­ment.”

Editas Medicine and Juno Thera­peutics, Inc. (now Celgene) originally entered into a stra­te­gic re­search col­lab­o­ration in 2015 focused on creating chi­meric an­ti­gen re­cep­tor T (CAR T) and high-affinity T cell re­cep­tor (TCR) cell ther­a­pies to treat cancer. The ex­clu­sive re­search period under the original col­lab­o­ration was set to expire in 2020. This newly amended agree­ment replaces the original agree­ment and allows Editas to de­vel­op non-alpha-beta T cell ther­a­pies, while ex­panding Celgene’s access to gene-edited alpha-beta T cells beyond on­col­ogy.

Conference Call

The Editas Medicine man­agement team will host a conference call and webcast to­day at 8:00 a.m. ET to provide and discuss a corporate up­date and fi­nan­cial results for the third quarter of 2019. To access the call, please dial 844-348-3801 (domestic) or 213-358-0955 (international) and provide the pass­code 6577216. A live webcast of the call will be avail­able on the Investors & Media section of the Editas Medicine website at www.editasmedicine.com and a replay will be avail­able approx­i­mately two hours after its com­ple­tion.

About Editas Medicine

As a lead­ing genome edit­ing com­pany, Editas Medicine is focused on translating the power and poten­tial of the CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cpf1 (also known as Cas12a) genome edit­ing sys­tems into a robust pipe­line of treat­ments for people living with serious dis­eases around the world. Editas Medicine aims to discover, de­vel­op, manu­fac­ture, and com­mer­cial­ize trans­for­ma­tive, durable, pre­ci­sion genomic med­i­cines for a broad class of dis­eases. For the latest in­for­ma­tion and scientific pre­sen­ta­tions, please visit www.editasmedicine.com.

Editas Medicine Forward-Looking State­ments

This press release con­tains for­ward-looking state­ments and in­for­ma­tion within the meaning of The Private Se­cu­ri­ties Lit­i­ga­tion Reform Act of 1995. The words ‘‘anticipate,’’ ‘‘believe,’’ ‘‘continue,’’ ‘‘could,’’ ‘‘estimate,’’ ‘‘expect,’’ ‘‘intend,’’ ‘‘may,’’ ‘‘plan,’’ ‘‘potential,’’ ‘‘predict,’’ ‘‘project,’’ ‘‘target,’’ ‘‘should,’’ ‘‘would,’’ and similar ex­pres­sions are in­tended to identify for­ward-looking state­ments, although not all for­ward-looking state­ments con­tain these identifying words. Forward-looking state­ments in this press release in­clude state­ments re­gard­ing Editas Medicine’s plans to de­vel­op cer­tain allogenic med­i­cines. Editas Medicine may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or ex­pec­ta­tions disclosed in these for­ward-looking state­ments, and you should not place undue reliance on these for­ward-looking state­ments. Actual results or events could differ ma­teri­ally from the plans, intentions and ex­pec­ta­tions disclosed in these for­ward-looking state­ments as a result of var­i­ous factors, in­clud­ing: un­cer­tainties in­her­ent in the initiation and com­ple­tion of pre­clin­i­cal studies and clin­i­cal trials and clin­i­cal devel­op­ment of Editas Medicine’s prod­uct can­di­dates; avail­a­bil­ity and timing of results from pre­clin­i­cal studies and clin­i­cal trials; whether interim results from a clin­i­cal trial will be predictive of the final results of the trial or the results of future trials; ex­pec­ta­tions for regu­la­tory ap­prov­als to conduct trials or to mar­ket prod­ucts and avail­a­bil­ity of funding suf­fi­cient for Editas Medicine’s foreseeable and unforeseeable op­er­at­ing expenses and capital ex­pen­di­ture re­quire­ments. These and other risks are described in greater detail under the caption “Risk Factors” in­cluded in Editas Medicine’s most recent Quar­ter­ly Report on Form 10-Q, which is on file with the Se­cu­ri­ties and Ex­change Com­mis­sion, and in other filings that Editas Medicine may make with the Se­cu­ri­ties and Ex­change Com­mis­sion in the future. Any for­ward-looking state­ments con­tained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Editas Medicine expressly disclaims any obli­ga­tion to up­date any for­ward-looking state­ments, whether because of new in­for­ma­tion, future events or other­wise.

Source: Editas Medicine.