CRISPR raises $113.8M in follow-on

Gene editing company CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) raised $113.8 million through the sale of 5 million shares at $22.75 in a follow-on underwritten by Goldman Sachs, Piper Jaffray, Barclays and Guggenheim. The price is a 10% discount to CRISPR’s close of $25.17 on Tuesday, before the company proposed to raise $100 million.

Last month, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX) selected CTX001 as the first gene therapy to develop under a 2015 deal with CRISPR. Vertex and CRISPR will co-develop and co-commercialize the ex vivo gene-edited autologous hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) therapy engineered to produce high levels of fetal hemoglobin in red blood cells. The companies plan to begin clinical testing of the candidate to treat transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease this year (see BioCentury Extra, Dec. 12, 2017)...