Editas Medicine, a US-based biotechnology company focused on genome editing technology, has secured a $43m series A financing led by venture firms Flagship Ventures, Polaris Partners and Third Rock Ventures, with participation from Partners Innovation Fund, the US-based strategic venture fund for Partners HealthCare, founded by the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Kevin Bitterman, interim president, Editas Medicine and principal, Polaris Partners, said: “Editas is exclusively positioned to leverage the very latest in genome editing to develop life-changing medicines for patients. Our suite of foundational intellectual property, combined with the proprietary know-how of our founding team and our financial resources, will enable us to rapidly translate these groundbreaking discoveries into important medicines.”
Editas states that recent advances have made it possible to modify almost any gene in the human body with the ability to turn on, turn off or edit disease-causing genes, and that the company’s mission is “to translate its genome editing technology into a novel class of human therapeutics that enable precise and corrective molecular modification to treat the underlying cause of a broad range of diseases at the genetic level.”