Intellia Therapeutics Acquires Rewrite Therapeutics

Intellia Therapeutics announced on Feb. 3, 2022 that the clinical-state genome editing company was acquiring Rewrite Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that develops novel DNA writing technologies, including DNA writing via CRISPER/Cas9-guided polymerases. According to Intellia, Rewrite’s precise editing strategies include target corrections, insertions, deletions, and a range of single-nucleotide changes. The company hopes these strategies will provide new ways to edit disease-causing genes.

“Rewrite also has developed an approach that could improve the efficiency of genome editing in non-dividing cell types, a key challenge for some existing editing platforms. Rewrite’s technology could potentially be delivered using Intellia’s lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology and adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors,” the company stated in a press release.

Rewrite shareholders will receive $45 million in an upfront payment as part of the transaction, with an additional $155 million in pre-specified research and regulatory approval milestones through stock and cash.

“At Intellia, we have built the industry’s broadest and deepest genome editing platform by staying at the forefront of new techniques, while also extending the capabilities of CRISPR/Cas9 editing to make precisely targeted changes to DNA,” said Intellia President and Chief Executive Officer John Leonard, M.D., in the press release. “We could not be more excited to add Rewrite’s additional capabilities to our growing platform, offering us new possibilities and the potential to target diseases beyond those currently being explored in our pipeline.”

Source: Intellia