Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) has partnered up with Fidelity Biosciences to venture into the gene editing research field.
The scientific community has recently shed more light on gene editing, citing the need for more focus on the subject. More finances have been allocated to the research, thus evidence of the rapidly growing appeal of the subject.
Amgen will power up together with Fidelity to join a spinoff that is focused on uncovering the hidden potential that lays within gene editing. The new venture will bring in a new competition to the rapidly growing semi-industry, being a more specialized division of a wider gene research field. The two companies will join the already existing company in the gene editing field called Precision Biosciences which originated from Duke.
Precision Biosciences has been in the limelight for a while. venBio is one of the initial companies to join the movement before Fidelity and Amgen joined the cause. The spinoff continues to capture the attention of investors because of the promising nature of the research. The venture has thus benefited from a large pool of funds. These funds have been allocated towards the development of a gene editing platform called ARCUS.
The platform will bring together the benefits accrued from TALEN and CRISPR especially with the benefits that will be expected from the knowledge derived from endo nucleases. The acquisition of the funding was greatly influenced by the company’s CEO, Matthew Cane. He also revealed a bit more about ARCUS as a synthetic nuclease those scientists at Precision Biosciences. It has been instrumental in solving many of the problems faced in the initial stages.
To increase the firm’s productivity, Cane plans on increasing the staff that at the moment consists of 18 individuals. The projected staff number ranges from 35 to 45. A proportion of the pool of funds collected from investors will be paid as salaries to the new staff. With more hands on deck, Cane and his team will be in a position to optimize on their research and enhance the possibilities for a breakthrough.
