CRISPR Therapeutics files for $90M IPO

CRISPR Therapeutics is headquartered in Basel with its R&D operations based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to Endpoints News, it was already suspected that CRISPR had been planning to go public since the June. The financing round of $38M and the report in Form S-1 – an IPO registration form that CRISPR Therapeutics filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission – indicating that CRISPR ended June with $246.8 million in cash, confirmed that the start-up was indeed planning to sell shares on the stock exchange market. On Friday, September 9  CRISPR Therapeutics filed an IPO for $90M on Nasdaq exchange, making it the latest biotech planning to sell shares to a public.

The company aims to raise sufficient funds to run operations for the next two years. CRISPR Therapeutics also has ambitions to treat cancer; therefore, a large percentage of these funds will be used to continue the biotech’s preclinical work. CRISPR expects to launch its first clinical effort for hemoglobinopathy programs in late 2017.

CRISPR Therapeutics was cofounded by CRISPR/Cas9 pioneer Emanuelle Charpentier as Inception Genomics in 2013. CRISPR/Cas9 is a revolutionary technology that allows for precise, directed changes to genomic DNA. The Company’s multi-disciplinary team of world-class researchers and drug developers is working to translate this technology into breakthrough human therapeutics in a number of serious diseases. Since its incorporation, it has achieved a number of miles stones; it has collected aver $200 Million from venture capitalists and has grown to employ 77 people as reported in Stat News. Last year, the company signed a $75 million agreement with biotech giant Vertex Pharmaceuticals. It has also partnered with Bayer on a 50-50 joint venture named Casebia, to develop gene therapies for blood disorders, blindness, and heart disease.

(RAN)