Talk:Editas Medicine

COI edit requests

Hi! I’m posting here on behalf of Editas Medicine, which is a client of my employer, Porter Novelli. I’m requesting some updates to flesh out this article. I've also mocked up what the article would look like with all these edits implemented here. Here's a diff showing all the edits from the current article.

• Add some parameters to the infobox (date and location of founding, president/CEO and Chairman under “Key people”, financial figures and employee headcount from most recent 10-K) and adding to “Industry” parameter:

Editas Medicine

Company type	Public
Traded as	Nasdaq: EDIT Russell 2000 Component
Industry	Biotechnology Genome engineering Pharmaceutical
Founded	November 2013 (2013-11) in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Headquarters	Cambridge, Massachusetts , United States
Key people	Cynthia Collins (President and CEO) James C. Mullen (Chairman)
Total assets	US$508,885,000 (2019)
Total equity	US$262,437,000 (2019)
Number of employees	208 (2020)
Website	www.editasmedicine.com

• Separate out content from the lead into new “History” and “Research” sections.
• Update first sentence of lead from

Editas Medicine is a discovery-phase pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which aims to develop therapies based on CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing technology.

to

Editas Medicine is a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is developing therapies based on CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing technology.

• In “History,” updating

The company has stated that “It will be many years, if ever, before we have a product candidate ready for commercialization.” Further, the company's valuation depends on a few patents, some of which are in dispute as of early 2018, presenting a major risk to the company's continued viability.

to

In its IPO filing, the company stated that "It will be many years, if ever, before we have a product candidate ready for commercialization."

(Updated to provide more context on timing. Also, the PatentDocs source doesn’t mention Editas, and the Atlas Business Journal source link is broken. Digging up an archive link leads me to believe that atlasbusinessjournal.org moved to nextgenpolitics.org, making this the updated, correct link for that source. I’m not certain that Next Generation Politics is a WP:RS, so I added a second source for the first sentence and deleted the second, which wasn’t corroborated by the source regardless.)

• In “History,” adding 2015 funding with ref:

In August 2015, the company raised $120 million in Series B funding from Bill Gates and 13 other investors.

• In “History,” adding to end of IPO paragraph:

The IPO raised $94 million.

• In “History,” adding:

Editas pledged $125 million in research funding to the Broad Institute in 2018. CEO Katrine Bosley stepped down in 2019 and was replaced by board member Cynthia Collins. Also in 2019, the company was building a new facility in Boulder, Colorado.

• Adding to beginning of “Research” (ref name already in use in article):

Editas works with two distinct CRISPR nucleases, Cas9 and Cas12a.

• In “Research”, add after discussion of Juno partnership: (Juno was later acquired by Celgene, which was in turn acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb.)
• In “Research”, updating Leber's congenital amaurosis, to Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA10),
• Adding to end of “Research”:

Editas announced in 2019 that it had found early success in research on EDIT-301, an experimental cell medicine, as a potential treatment for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.

In March 2020, Editas, in partnership with Allergan, was the first to use CRISPR to try to edit DNA inside a person's body (in vivo). As part of the clinical trial, a patient who was nearly blind as a result of Leber's congenital amaurosis received a microscopic injection in the eyeball containing a harmless virus carrying CRISPR gene-editing instructions. Five months later, Editas reworked its deal with Allergan's owner AbbVie and regained full rights to their range of eye disease treatment therapies, including EDIT-101 for the treatment of LCA10.

Happy to revise/reformat these requests however is most helpful for review. Thank you for your time and feedback! Mary Gaulke (talk) 16:42, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

References

@MaryGaulke: - This is a really well crafted COI edit request. I'm super busy this weekend, but I will turn my full attention to it early next week if no one gets to it before me. NickCT (talk) 05:07, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

@MaryGaulke - Ok. I've taken a first pass. I'll probably be back to comb through it again. Couple notes;

1) SEC filings probably aren't great sources, but we can likley use them for the info box.

2) Having trouble finding a good source for the company building in Boulder. I can find references saying they have facilities in Boulder. Can we just say the latter?

3) I think EDIT-301 is just for sickle-cell disease. Not thalassemia.

4) It's a little hard to figure out what is "History" here and what is "Research". I suggest the "research" section be a simple overview of drugs in the pipeline.

Anyways, hope you're happy with this as a first pass. Let me know know if there are questions/comments/concerns, or if I've missed anything. NickCT (talk) 15:04, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

@NickCT: Thank you for your kind words and your help!

1) I believe SEC filings are considered OK just for straightforward figures and the like. Per WP:PRIMARY: "A primary source may be used on Wikipedia only to make straightforward, descriptive statements of facts that can be verified by any educated person with access to the primary source but without further, specialized knowledge." I can also show precedent from other articles (including GAs) if it's helpful.

2) The Motley Fool source states, "Editas is also building a Good Manufacturing Practice facility in Boulder, Colorado, to supply guide RNA and ribunucleoprotein in support of EDIT-301. The facility should be commissioned in 2020." Not sure if that's sufficient. I think your wording works too.

3) Per the Drug Target Review source: "Editas Medicine, the company who led the research, has initiated IND-enabling activities for EDIT-301. This is an experimental CRISPR medicine designed to durably treat sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia by editing the beta-globin locus." BioCentury indicates the same.

4) This works! In my opinion, it also makes sense to move the information about the company's founding out of the lead and into "History."

Everything else looks great. Thank you again! Mary Gaulke (talk) 19:10, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

@MaryGaulke:

1) Ok. Good enough.

2) Motely is a so-so source. I guess for these kind of details it's not so bad. Anyway, I tossed a note about Boulder into the lead.

3) Yes. You're right. I'm wrong. Apparently my understanding of these conditions is not as good as I thought.

4) Great! Let me know if there's anything else.

Have a nice day. NickCT (talk) 14:56, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

2021 COI edit requests

Hi! As noted above, I have a COI: Editas is a client of my employer, Porter Novelli. A few edit requests for this article:

• In infobox, update "Key people" from

Cynthia Collins (President and CEO)
James C. Mullen (Chairman)

to

James C. Mullen (Chairman and CEO)

• Add to end of History:

James Mullen replaced Collins as CEO in February 2021.

• Add to end of "EDIT-301":

The FDA gave Editas clearance to begin the clinical trial of EDIT-301 in January 2021.

Thanks for your help or feedback! Mary Gaulke (talk) 18:18, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

References

Looks like someone got to this before I could! NickCT (talk) 13:36, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

Yeap, I only added a reference. Removing the edit banner. Ferkijel (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

@NickCT and Ferkijel: Thanks both! It looks like the end of "History" could use some basic copy editing – Mullen's rise to CEO is now mentioned twice, and there are some simple wording and punctuation errors. Would one of you be willing to give it a second look? Or if preferred, I can make the edits (only cosmetic) and invite your review. Mary Gaulke (talk) 20:42, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

I’m focusing on clearing the Edit Requests backlog (which until last week had reached over 250), so I am not looking at copy editing. I may get to that eventually. But if you have a specific proposal for the copy editing, I suggest you type it here, and someone will get to it. For what it’s worth, non-CEO staff are rarely mentioned unless it adds signficant value to the article, which in my opinion is not the case here. A copy editor is likely to remove the sentences about the CIO and the CFO. Cheers ! Ferkijel (talk) 21:22, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

@MaryGaulke: - I think I fixed the duplicate information issue. I don't think punctuation changes are going to fall afoul of WP:COI. NickCT (talk) 12:43, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

Thanks again to you both! Mary Gaulke (talk) 12:58, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

COI edit request: new CEO

Hi! As noted above, I’m a COI editor for Editas, a client of my employer, Porter Novelli. Two quick edit requests for this article:

• Add to end of History:

Gilmore O'Neill, former CMO of Sarepta Therapeutics, became CEO on June 1, 2022, with Mullen staying on as executive chairman of the board.

• Update "Key people" in the infobox from "James Mullen (President and CEO)" to "Gilmore O'Neill (President and CEO)".

Thanks for your help or feedback! Mary Gaulke (talk) 19:09, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

done--Akrasia25 (talk) 20:59, 3 June 2022 (UTC)

References

Closing per Akrasia25's comment Happy Editing--IAmChaos 00:50, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

@Akrasia25 and IAmChaos: Thank you kindly! I see the edit was made in the infobox but not in the "History" section of the article body. Would it be OK to add that too? Thanks again. Mary Gaulke (talk) 19:12, 7 June 2022 (UTC)