CRISPR Therapeutics and ViaCyte Announce Strategic Collaboration to Develop Gene-Edited Stem Cell-Derived Therapy for Diabetes

CRISPR Therapeutics and ViaCyte announced a collaboration focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of gene-edited allogeneic stem cell therapies for the treatment of diabetes.

Decades of clinical data with islet transplants indicate that beta-cell replacement approaches may offer curative benefit to patients with insulin-requiring diabetes. ViaCyte has pioneered the approach of generating pancreatic-lineage cells from stem cells and delivering them safely and efficiently to patients. PEC-Direct, ViaCyte’s lead product candidate currently being evaluated in the clinic, uses a non-immunoprotective delivery device that permits direct vascularization of the cell therapy. This approach has the potential to deliver durable benefit; however, because the patient’s immune system will identify these cells as foreign, PEC-Direct will require long-term immunosuppression to avoid rejection. As a result, PEC-Direct is being developed as a therapy for the subset of patients with type 1 diabetes at high risk for acute complications.

CRISPR gene editing offers the potential to protect the transplanted cells from the patient’s immune system by ex-vivo editing immune-modulatory genes within the stem cell line used to produce the pancreatic-lineage cells. The speed, specificity, and multiplexing efficiency of the CRISPR system make it ideally suited to this task. CRISPR Therapeutics is pursuing a similar approach for its allogeneic CAR-T programs and has established significant expertise in immune-evasive gene editing. The combination of ViaCyte’s stem cell capabilities and CRISPR’s gene editing capabilities has the potential to enable a beta-cell replacement product that may deliver durable benefit to patients without triggering an immune reaction.

“We believe the combination of regenerative medicine and gene editing has the potential to offer durable, curative therapies to patients in many different diseases, including common chronic disorders like insulin-requiring diabetes. ViaCyte is a pioneer in the regenerative medicine field, and has built a compelling clinical program, robust manufacturing capabilities, and assembled a strong intellectual property position. Partnering with ViaCyte will allow us to accelerate our efforts in regenerative medicine, an area that we believe will provide a variety of longer-term opportunities for our company,” commented Samarth Kulkarni, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of CRISPR Therapeutics.

Under the terms of the agreement, CRISPR and ViaCyte will jointly seek to develop an immune-evasive stem cell line as a first step on the path to an allogeneic stem-cell derived product. Upon successful completion of these studies and identification of a product candidate, the parties will jointly assume responsibility for further development and commercialization worldwide. Upon execution of the agreement ViaCyte will receive $15 million from CRISPR, which at CRISPR’s election may be paid in either cash or CRISPR stock. ViaCyte also has the option, under certain circumstances, to receive an additional $10 million from CRISPR in the form of a convertible promissory note.

“Creating an immune-evasive gene-edited version of our technology would enable us to address a larger patient population than we could with a product requiring immunosuppression. CRISPR Therapeutics is the ideal partner for this program given their leading gene editing technology and expertise and focus on immune-evasive editing. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with CRISPR Therapeutics on what we believe could be a transformational therapy for patients with insulin-requiring diabetes,” commented Paul Laikind, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and President of ViaCyte. “We also believe that this approach may have many other applications which we and CRISPR may explore in the future.”