Sana Obtains License To Beam Therapeutics' CRISPR Cas12b Gene Editing Technology

Sana Biotechnology Inc SANA has secured non-exclusive commercial rights to Beam Therapeutics Inc's BEAM CRISPR Cas12b nuclease system for certain ex vivo engineered cell therapy programs.
The license does not include any rights to base editing using Cas12b, which remains at Beam. Under the terms of the agreement, Sana will pay Beam an upfront payment of $50 million.
Beam is also eligible to receive certain target option exercise fees, certain milestone payments.
Earlier today, Beam reported new preclinical data demonstrating the ability of its liver-targeted base editing approach to directly correct R83C, one of the primary disease-causing mutations of glycogen storage disease type Ia (GSDIa).
The results demonstrate that newborn huR83C mice treated with Beam's LNP-delivered ABE exhibit normal growth to the end of the study at three weeks of age without any hypoglycemia-induced seizures.
In addition, Beam observed editing efficiencies up to approximately 60% by next-generation sequencing of DNA isolated from the whole liver.
SVB Leerink initiated coverage on Beam Therapeutics with Outperform rating, with the price target of $117.
Related: Beam Therapeutics' Base Editors Show Encouraging Preclinical Action In HBV Infection.
Price Action: BEAM shares are up 4.12% at $94.45 during the market session on the last check Tuesday.