The present developing situation of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology

The development of genetic editing technology CRISPR / Cas9 is just like the advent of PCR technologies. It not only opened a new door for the academic community, but also be continuously concerned by the mass media. CRISPR / Cas9 gene technology can conduct modifications, knock, knock and the like at fixed point. More importantly, CRISPR can complete genetic editing with the method of high throughput. What's more, the operation is simple and the cost is low. These features make the CRISPR / Cas9 a good choice for gene editing. Therefore, MIT Technology Review called CRISPR / Cas9 technology "century invention".

The subversive role of CRISPR / Cas9 technology in the biological and medical fields naturally is sought after by the investment community, and the massive influx of capital was invested into the startup projects related to this technology. Currently, there are three companies in leading position on the market, namely Editas Medicine, Intellia Therapeutics and CRISPR Therapeutics. Over the past three years, the three companies had financed a total of more than 660 million US dollars. In addition, they also obtained more than 500 million US dollars in revenue through cooperation with Novartis, Bayer and other well-known pharmaceutical companies.

Speaking of CRISPR / Cas9, we should also mention the controversy regarding its intellectual property ownership. Relevant legal proceedings are still in progress, but no one can place a stake in the ground. Ownership of intellectual property rights in the field of high technology has never been a black or white thing. In IT industry, Apple and Samsung all accused each other of violating its intellectual property rights from each other. Similarly in the field of biotechnology, the attribution of intellectual property rights has also been accompanied by controversy. For example, to obtain the ownership of EPO (a treatment for anemia drug), Amgen and Genetics Institute went to the court in the late 1980s to compete for intellectual property rights related to recombinant protein expression. In 1989, the federal district court in Boston judged that both sides had the patent and both of them violated intellectual property rights of each other; while in 1991, the first federal appeals court overturned the judgment of the Federal District Court in Boston and granted the intellectual property rights to Amagen. Likewise, MedImmune and Genetech had also played a lawsuit for their intellectual property related to mAb (monoclonal antibody) for many years.