Agreements

Date: 2018-08-06

Type of information: Exercise of an option agreement

Compound: up to five of Editas Medicine's genome-editing ocular programs, including EDIT-101 for the treatment of LCA10

Company: Allergan (Ireland) Editas Medicine (USA - MA)

Therapeutic area: Rare diseases - Genetic diseases - Ophtalmological diseases

Type agreement: development - licensing

Action mechanism:

genome editing product. The agreement covers early stage, first-in-class ocular programs targeting serious diseases based on Editas Medicine's unparalleled CRISPR genome editing platform, including CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cpf1. CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is a dynamic, versatile tool that can be programmed to target specific stretches of genetic code and edit DNA at precise locations in the human genome. The technology allows researchers to permanently modify genes and has the potential to create medicines with a durable treatment effect.

Disease: Leber congenital amaurosis type 10 (LCA10)

Details:

• On March 14, 2017, Allergan and Editas Medicine announced that Allergan's wholly-owned subsidiary, Allergan Pharmaceuticals International Limited, and Editas Medicine have entered into a strategic research and development alliance under which Allergan will receive exclusive access and the option to license up to five of Editas Medicine's genome-editing ocular programs, including its lead program for Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA10), which is currently in pre-clinical development.
The agreement covers early stage, first-in-class ocular programs targeting serious diseases based on Editas Medicine's unparalleled CRISPR genome editing platform, including CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cpf1. Editas Medicine's lead program is being developed for the potential treatment of LCA10, a rare, inherited retinal degenerative disease that appears in childhood and leads to blindness.

Financial terms:

Under the terms of the agreement, Editas Medicine will receive an upfront payment of $90 million for the development of five candidate programs. Editas Medicine has the potential to earn additional payments for achieving important near-term milestones specifically related to LCA10. Allergan will have the option to license up to five programs under the agreement and will be responsible for development and commercialization of the optioned products, subject to Editas' option right to co-develop and co-promote up to two optioned products in the United States. Editas Medicine will also be eligible to receive development and commercial milestones, as well as royalty payments on a per-program basis.

Latest news:

• On August 6, 2018, Allergan and Editas Medicine announced that Allergan's wholly-owned subsidiary, Allergan Pharmaceuticals International, has exercised its option to develop and commercialize EDIT-101 globally for the treatment of LCA10. Additionally, Editas Medicine has exercised its option to co-develop and share equally in the profits and losses from EDIT-101 in the United States. Under the terms of the option agreement signed in March 2017 , Allergan has paid Editas Medicine a fee of $15 million in conjunction with the exercise of its option. Editas Medicine is eligible to receive an additional $25 million from Allergan upon acceptance of an investigational new drug (IND) application for EDIT-101 by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).