NEW YORK – ERS Genomics said on Wednesday that it has signed a licensing agreement granting Japanese biotech company FASMAC access to ERS's CRISPR-Cas9 patent portfolio, and the right to use the technology to commercialize tools and reagents associated with it.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Dublin-based ERS Genomics was founded to provide access to CRISPR-Cas9 intellectual property held by Emmanuelle Charpentier. This CRISPR IP is shared between her, Jennifer Doudna and the University of California, and the University of Vienna, and is separate from genome editing patents held by the Broad Institute.
FASMAC, which was established in 2001, provides food analysis and biotechnology products and services, including DNA and RNA synthesis products, DNA sequencing services, food testing services, and genetic analysis reagents and kits.
"Our portfolio of Japanese companies taking license to the CRISPR-Cas9 technology is growing rapidly, and we are very pleased to be working with FASMAC," ERS CEO Eric Rhodes said in a statement. "We look forward to watching the company as it grows in this space and provides a valuable contribution to the genome editing field."
ERS has signed several licensing deals for its technology this year, including with Daiichi Sankyo in January, with Aelian Biotechnology in February, and with Axxam in April. Most recently, the company signed a commercialization agreement for CRISPR services and reagents with Applied StemCell in September.