Intellia Therapeutics
Intellia Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing biopharmaceuticals using a CRISPR gene-editing system invented by Jennifer Doudna (with colleagues at University of California, Berkeley) and Virginijus Šikšnys (with colleagues at Vilnius University). The company has partnerships with Novartis and Regeneron.
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Type | Public |
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Industry | Biotherapeutics |
Founded | 2014 |
Headquarters | , United States |
Key people |
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Revenue | ![]() |
Number of employees | 211 |
Website | intelliatx |
History
Intellia Therapeutics was founded in May 2014 to develop biopharmaceuticals using CRISPR.[2][3]
It was backed by Atlas Venture and Novartis; the founding CEO was Nessan Bermingham from Atlas and the founding CSO was John Leonard, formerly CSO of AbbVie. The academic scientists involved in the founding included Rodolphe Barrangou, Rachel Haurwitz, Luciano Marraffini, Erik Sontheimer, and Derrick Rossi.[2] The intellectual property around CRISPR was contested from the beginning; Intellia in-licensed patents from Caribou Biosciences, which had licensed patents from University of California invented by Jennifer Doudna.[4][5]
Novartis had funded the Series A round because of its interest in applying CRISPR in CAR-T, and in January 2015 Novartis and Intellia reached a deal through which Novartis obtained rights to use CRISPR for its CAR-T program, and the companies agreed to collaborate on ways to use CRISPR to treat diseases involving hematopoietic stem cells including beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease.[4] Intellia formed a division called eXtellia Therapeutics to manage the CAR-T collaboration with Novartis.[6]
As of February 2015, Intellia's competitors included CRISPR Therapeutics (with IP invented by Emmanuelle Charpentier), Editas Medicine (with IP invented by Feng Zhang from the Broad Institute) and Horizon Discovery. Among large pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca had the broadest set of collaborations in CRISPR.[7][8]
In April 2017 Intellia entered into a partnership with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals under which Regeneron gained the exclusive right to use Intellia's CRISPR platform on up to 10 drug targets, of which up to five could be outside of the liver, and the companies agreed to co-develop other targets. Regeneron paid $75 million upfront, as well as milestones and royalties.[9] The company said it planned to put $10 million of the funds into its bioinformatics program, to help it evaluate targets.[10]
In December 2016, the company moved to its new 80,000 sq. ft. laboratory and office space in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[11] By that time, it had in-licensed a lipid nanoparticle drug delivery system to help with its efforts to deliver its CRISPR drugs to the liver, without being degraded in the bloodstream; at that time it had not disclosed the licensor.[12]
In March 2017 Intellia and Regeneron, its partner in co-developing a CRISPR-based treatment for transthyretin amyloidosis, presented data from a gene editing experiment in mice.[13][14] By that time, University of California had lost a challenge to Broad's CRISPR patents, putting Intellia at a disadvantage relative to Editas.[13]
In December 2017 Leonard, who had experience in drug development, took over as CEO.[15]
In October 2019, Intellia named Glenn Goddard as its executive vice president and CFO. Prior to Intellia, Goddard was the CFO at Generation Bio Company and senior vice president of finance at Agios Pharmaceuticals.[16][17]
Funding
In November 2014, Intellia Therapeutics raised $15 million in Series A round.[18] In September 2015, a Series B round secured $70 million.[19] In May 2016, Intellia announced the closing of its initial public offering which raised approximately $112.1 million.[20][21] In the course of going public, the company disclosed that it had licensed the lipid drug delivery system from Novartis, and that it involved creating lipid droplets to encapsulate the CRISPR agents.[20]
References
- https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NTLA/intellia-therapeutics/profit-margins
- Carroll, John (November 18, 2014). "Novartis joins Atlas in launching a CRISPR Cas biotech with a $15M bankroll". FierceBiotech. Framingham, Massachusetts: Questex. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020.
- Rockoff, Jonathan (June 28, 2015). "Why Gene Editing Has Scientists Excited". Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones Products. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020.
- Lash, Alex (January 7, 2015). "CART + CRISPR = 1st-Of-Its-Kind Biotech Deal From Novartis, Intellia". Xconomy. Boston, Massachusetts: Brian Caine. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020. Note - the second page of the article appears here.
- Lash, Alex (November 18, 2014). "With Atlas Cash and Berkeley Tools, Intellia Joins the CRISPR Fray". Xconomy. Boston, Massachusetts. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020. Note - the article's second page appears here.
- Staff (January 14, 2016). "Intellia Therapeutics Forms New Division eXtellia for Joint Programs with Novartis". BIO.IT World. Needham, Massachusetts: CHI. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020.
- "Gene editing comes of healthcare age". Financial Times. United Kingdom: Nikkei. February 16, 2015.
- Mullard, Asher (1 February 2015). "Novartis secures first CRISPR pharma collaborations". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 14 (2): 82–82. doi:10.1038/nrd4546.(subscription required)
- "Regeneron, Intellia Partner to Develop CRISPR/Cas Therapeutics". Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. New Rochelle, New York: Mary Ann Liebert. April 11, 2016. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020.
- Taylor, Nick Paul (May 6, 2016). "Intellia set to invest millions in CRISPR informatics platform after nailing upsized IPO". FierceBiotech. Framingham, Massachusetts: Questex. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020.
- Carlook, Catherine (January 22, 2016). "Exclusive: Fast-growing gene-editing biotech expanding near Kendall Square". Boston Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020.
- Lash, Alex (September 1, 2015). "CRISPR Cash: Intellia The Latest Gene-Editing Firm To Nab Big Money". Xconomy. Boston, Massachusetts. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020.
- Stendahl, Max (March 8, 2017). "Intellia R&D head says new gene-editing data shows path to human trials". Boston Business Journal. American City Business Journals.
- Le Page, Michael (October 2, 2017). "We're nearly ready to use CRISPR to target far more diseases". New Scientist. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020.
- "Intellia Therapeutics Names John Leonard, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer" (Press release). Intellia Therapeutics. December 18, 2017. Retrieved 10 Feb 2020.
- Inc, Intellia Therapeutics (2018-10-29). "Intellia Therapeutics Names Glenn Goddard as New Chief Financial Officer". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
- "Intellia Therapeutics Names Glenn Goddard as New Chief Financial Officer". Biotech Finances (in French). 2018-11-02. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
- Gormley, Brian (November 18, 2014). "Intellia Therapeutics Raises $15M Series A for Gene Editing Therapies". Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones.
- Newsham, Jack (September 1, 2015). "Intellia raises $70 million for gene-editing treatments". Boston Globe.
- "Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2016". Intellia via SEC Edgar.
- Beckerman, Josh (May 6, 2016). "Stock in Biotech Company Intellia Rises 23% After Upsized IPO". Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones.