CRISPR Therapeutics, a gene editing company, has signed an expanded clinical and commercial license agreement into oncology with MaxCyte, a cell-based medicines and life sciences company, it was reported yesterday.

Both firms have entered into a non-exclusive commercial license agreement that will enable CRISPR Therapeutics to deploy MaxCyte's Flow Electroporation Technology to develop CRISPR/Cas9-based therapies in immuno-oncology.

The expanded relationship is based on a present agreement announced in March 2017, which allowed for the development of commercial therapeutics for haemoglobin-related diseases. According to the terms of the new license agreement, CRISPR Therapeutics will receive non-exclusive development and commercial-use rights to MaxCyte's cell engineering platform to develop immuno-oncology cell therapies. MaxCyte will provide its technology to CRISPR Therapeutics as part of the enabling technology license agreement and will receive milestone and sales-based payments in addition to other licensing fees.