CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT), a clinical-stage gene editing company, today announced the sale of certain future license fees and other payments owed to Editas Medicine under its Cas9 license agreement with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to a wholly-owned subsidiary of DRI Healthcare Trust (DRI) for an upfront cash payment of $57 million. The upfront cash payment brings non-dilutive capital to Editas Medicine, helping enable further pipeline development and related strategic priorities.
"We are pleased to partner with DRI to monetize a portion of the licensing payments from the Vertex Cas9 license deal we announced last December, providing us with considerable non-dilutive capital that we can put to work immediately as we develop our pipeline of future medicines," said Gilmore O'Neill, M.B., M.M.Sc., President and Chief Executive Officer, Editas Medicine. "We look forward to an ongoing relationship with DRI as we continue to execute our strategy."
Under the terms of the agreement, Editas Medicine will receive an upfront cash payment of $57 million in exchange for up to 100% of certain future annual license fees payable to Editas Medicine, ranging from $5 million to $40 million per year (inclusive of certain sales-based annual license fees that may become due) and a mid-double-digit percentage of Editas Medicine's portion of a $50 million contingent upfront payment for which Editas Medicine is eligible under the Vertex license agreement. In addition to a portion of any such contingent ...
