Page 66 - Breeding Edge ebook

Another issue: Morris said that “generalist investors and individuals tend to shy away from early-stage
risk if they don’t understand the industry or underlying science.
“If generalist funds are hesitant to back a play because they don’t understand the science behind it, then
companies that can perform financial and scientific due diligence have an advantage,” Morris said.
“Corporate venture models, such as Monsanto Growth Ventures and Syngenta Ventures, can efficiently
de-risk opportunities because they have large R&D departments and scientists to help with diligence.
They also have large-scale plots of land to perform high-powered statistical proof-of-concept studies to
validate technologies. And by providing exit opportunities and ongoing business relationships with the
start-ups in which they invest, these corporate ventures are able to further reduce risk.”
Who has the IP?
Another technology research firm that specializes in patent licensing and litigation, iRunway, recently
analyzed 4,336 IP (Intellectual Property) assets in CRISPR filed over the last 20 years across the globe,
identifying leading patent holders and focus areas of development.
In iRunway’s recent report, they found that research related to genome editing involving zinc
finger nucleases (ZFNs) and TAL effector nucleases (TALENs) remained the primary area of
focus until 2012. But that changed with new research and publication of three studies in January
2013 – demonstrating CRISPR-Cas9 to be an efficient tool to edit the genomes of human cells.
That’s when research involving CRISPR Cas9 became a revolution, iRunway wrote.
Research publication and patenting filing activity describing CRISPR gene editing increased by leaps
and bounds after those studies were published but has declined in the last two years.

64 www.Agri-Pulse.com