Prime Medicine has come out ahead in its patent dispute with fellow gene editing biotech Beam Therapeutics, after a panel of adjudicators ruled the company did not violate its agreement with Beam and can continue developing its lead asset for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD).
According to the arbitration tribunal’s decision, Prime does not owe Beam any money for damages, Prime announced in a July 8 release.
The quarrel stemmed from a 2019 collaboration and license agreement between the two biotechs, which both originated from research done at the Harvard lab of David Liu, Ph.D. Beam alleged that Prime violated the agreement by developing PM647 to correct the most common mutation that causes AATD, called PiZ, in the SERPINA1 gene.
“We are pleased with the tribunal’s decision, which paves the way for PM647 to advance into the clinic and positions us to fully realize PM647’s potential for patients,” Prime CEO Allan Reine, M.D., said in the release.
Both PM647 and Beam’s candidate, BEAM-302, use CRISPR to guide gene editing machinery to SERPINA1 and correct a mutated adenine in the DNA code. While base editors switch one specific letter of DNA to another, in Beam’s case an adenine to a guanine, prime editors can more flexibly swap any letter of DNA to any other. The techniques are overall quite similar.
Under the initial agreement, the biotechs generally agreed to develop their medicines in separate disease areas. Despite this, Prime started development of PM647 in August 2025 for AATD, an area where Beam has a significant head start.
“We respectfully disagree with aspects of the ruling,” Beam said in a statement in response to today's decision. “We are pleased, however, that the panel’s narrow decision in this specific case does not affect our broad, exclusive rights to prime editing for transition edits, including the correction of the causative Z mutation in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.”
Prime’s stock enjoyed a little boost on the news, rising from $3.99 per share at yesterday’s close to a high of $4.70. Beam, meanwhile, took a slight dip of around 6%.
In its statement, Beam suggested that it considers the fight for its intellectual property far from over. Prime, too, has other disputes lingering with CRISPR Therapeutics and Flagship Pioneering’s Tessera Therapeutics.
“We are and will continue to defend the innovative technologies, collaboration rights, and foundational patents in both base editing and prime editing that we have assembled,” Beam said.