Gene-editing firms form patent alliance against Editas, Broad

Four biotechs involved in the burgeoning field of gene editing announced a formal patent alliance on Friday that puts them at odds with two Cambridge institutions doing the same, Editas Medicine and The Broad Institute.

The four companies — Berkeley, California-based Caribou Biosciences, ERS Genomics of Ireland, and Cambridge-based firms CRISPR Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CRSP) and Intellia Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NTLA) — all licensed or sublicensed intellectual property regarding CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing from the same source: biologist Emmanuelle Charpentier, the Regents of the University of California and the University of Vienna.

On the other side of the dispute is Editas (Nasdaq: EDIT), which has been using CRISPR technology developed by Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute.

Charpentier and Zhang have each received patents for CRISPR/Cas9, a method of cutting out and replacing part of a gene that has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of serious genetic disorders. Their backers — UC Berkeley and the Broad, respectively — are currently duking it out in a court case in Virginia before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A decision is expected in coming...