Michael Yang, ViaCyte CEO

CRISPR, Vi­a­Cyte beat Ver­tex to the clin­ic with di­a­betes cell ther­a­py that evades the im­mune sys­tem

The race to de­vel­op a cell ther­a­py for type 1 di­a­betes is heat­ing up, and the team at Vi­a­Cyte and CRISPR Ther­a­peu­tics ap­pears to have pulled ahead by a hair.

Vi­a­Cyte an­nounced Tues­day it’s putting a new ther­a­py in the clin­ic de­rived from “off-the-shelf,” gene-edit­ed, im­mune-eva­sive stem cells, the first time such a treat­ment will be test­ed in hu­mans. The move comes af­ter its clin­i­cal tri­al ap­pli­ca­tion was ac­cept­ed by Cana­di­an reg­u­la­tors, and pa­tient en­roll­ment is ex­pect­ed to start by the end of the year.

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