
The purported inventors of a hyperbolically promising approach to gene editing are fighting over just who came up with it first. And while it’s anyone’s guess who will prevail, looking at business deals provides a glimpse at how other companies think things might shake out.
By that measure, the Broad Institute has just notched a minor victory.
Evotec, a German company that handles pharmaceutical development for pharma and biotech, paid an undisclosed sum to borrow the Broad’s CRISPR technology for drug discovery. The deal itself is hardly earth-shattering, but it’s a vote of confidence in the Broad in the midst of an ugly patent fight.