Crispr patent

The focus of debate now is who invented what when? This involves three large financing startups, six universities and thousands of pages of legal documents. One of them is Swiss drug research and development company CRISPR Therapeutics, co-founded by Emmanuelle Charpentier. Rodger Novak, the current CEO of CRISPR Therapeutics, said: "Intellectual property is quite complicated in this field, and everyone knows that it is full of contradictions."

Scientists believe that CRISPR may be the most important genetic engineering technology since the beginning of the biotechnology era in the 1970s. CRISPR system has the dual functions of searching and replacing DNA, which enables scientists to easily change the function of DNA by replacing bases. In the past few months, scientists have confirmed that CRISPR can treat muscular atrophy and rare liver diseases in mice, and make human cells immune to HIV and other amazing functions.

Although there are no drugs related to CRISPR at present, if CRISPR is really as powerful as scientists predict, its commercial control will be worth one billion dollars. Patent control is very important for startups. At present, several companies related to CRISPR have quickly raised more than 80 million US dollars, aiming to make CRISPR cure devastating diseases as soon as possible. These companies expect to start clinical trials in less than three years.