Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Patent offices in Europe, Israel, South Korea and U.K. issue seven additional grants for Merck's CRISPR genome-editing technology
- Merck has 20 allowed CRISPR patents to date across nine different geographies
A leading science and technology company, today announced that the European, Israeli, South Korean and U.K. intellectual property offices have issued formal notices allowing seven additional Merck patent application claims covering CRISPR gene-editing technology, bringing the number of patents to 20 worldwide.
"It is encouraging to see this important body of scientific work recognized with the grants of these latest CRISPR patents," said Udit Batra, member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. "Our ambition is to continue growing our CRISPR intellectual property portfolio with technologies such as paired Cas9 nickases, for reducing off-target effects, and proxy-CRISPR, which offers researchers more experimental options to accelerate drug development and access to new therapies."
Details on Merck's latest CRISPR patent awards are as follows:
European Patent Office — Patent allowances for: These two newly allowed claim sets cover compositions that can be used forgene knock-in and gene knock-out. Israeli IP Office — Patent allowance for: Vectors for CRISPR integration. The newly allowed claims cover vector compositions to support CRISPR delivery and expression in eukaryotic cells, including viral delivery methods broadly used in both cancer research (lentivirus) and human therapeutic applications (adeno-associated virus, or AAV). proxy-CRISPR technology, which provides access to modify difficult-to-reach genomic regions, expanding CRISPR design options. This approach also allows a reduction in off-target effects. Engineered Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)-guided endonuclease and protein- RNA complexes. Paired Nickase technology, to reduce off-target effects. Paired nickases represent a significant step in increasing genome-editing safety. South Korean IP Office — Patent allowance for: Paired Nickase technology. U.K. (IP) Office — Patent allowance for: proxy-CRISPR technology.
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