Editas Medicine, Inc. (EDIT) announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has once again sided with the Broad Institute in a long-running dispute over who first invented the use of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in human cells.
The ruling, issued by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), reaffirms earlier decisions that gave inventorship priority to the Broad Institute, MIT, and Harvard. The case was sent back by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 2025, but this latest outcome marks the third time the PTAB has favored Broad. The University of California, Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (CVC) still have the right to appeal.
For Editas, the decision is significant because the company holds exclusive licenses to Broad's CRISPR/Cas9 patents for developing medicines. This intellectual property underpins Editas' pipeline, including its experimental therapy EDIT-401, which has shown promising cholesterol-lowering results in animal studies.
"We are pleased with decision reaffirming Broad's inventorship priority for CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing," said Gilmore O'Neill, President and CEO of Editas Medicine. He added that the ruling strengthens confidence in the company's patent position and supports its efforts to advance in vivo gene editing programs. Editas is developing EDIT-401, a potential one-time therapy that has shown over 90% reduction in LDL cholesterol in animal studies, which the company believes could be best-in-class.
The company emphasized that its broader patent portfolio- covering both CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cas12a technologies- remains intact and unaffected by this interface case. Eidtas says this foundation strengthens its ability to advance gene editing programs aimed at serious diseases.
EDIT has traded between $0.91 and $4.53 over the past year. The stock closed Thursday's trading at $2.32. In pre-market the stock is trading at $2.22, down 4.31%.
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