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Bayer Inks CRISPR Patent Licensing Agreement

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Bayer and ERS Genomics announced today that they have signed a patent license agreement, giving the Bayer LifeScience Center (BLSC) access to ERS's foundational CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology.

Financial and other details of the agreement were not disclosed.

ERS Genomics was formed to commercialize patents held by CRISPR pioneer Emmanuelle Charpentier, now director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology. She is a co-inventor on a foundational CRISPR/Cas9 patent application currently at the center of a patent interference trial being conducted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. A team led by the Broad Institute currently holds the key patent for CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

The BLSC has also recently created a joint venture with CRISPR Therapeutics, a firm Charpentier co-founded, to develop new CRISPR-based therapies.

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