Regeneron and Mammoth strike $100M deal to pair tiny CRISPR editors with new delivery idea

Re­gen­eron is ex­pand­ing its ge­net­ic med­i­cine ef­forts and will work with Cal­i­for­nia start­up Mam­moth Bio­sciences on gene-edit­ing pro­grams reach­ing parts of the hu­man body be­yond the liv­er, the com­pa­nies an­nounced Thurs­day.

While CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edit­ing tech­nol­o­gy has won a No­bel Prize, bio­phar­ma com­pa­nies have strug­gled to turn the tool in­to ther­a­pies that can reach many of the body’s tis­sues and or­gans. In­stead, drug de­vel­op­ers have crowd­ed in­to dis­ease tar­gets in the liv­er, the clear­ing­house or­gan where de­liv­ery sys­tems like lipid nanopar­ti­cles or vi­ral vec­tors typ­i­cal­ly wind up.

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