• Sana Biotechnology Inc (NASDAQ: SANA) has secured non-exclusive commercial rights to Beam Therapeutics Inc's (NASDAQ: BEAM) CRISPR Cas12b nuclease system for certain ex vivo engineered cell therapy programs.

• The license does not include any rights to base editing using Cas12b, which remains at Beam. Under the terms of the agreement, Sana will pay Beam an upfront payment of $50 million.

• Beam is also eligible to receive certain target option exercise fees, certain milestone payments.

• Earlier today, Beam reported new preclinical data demonstrating the ability of its liver-targeted base editing approach to directly correct R83C, one of the primary disease-causing mutations of glycogen storage disease type Ia (GSDIa).

• The results demonstrate that newborn huR83C mice treated with Beam's LNP-delivered ABE exhibit normal growth to the end of the study at three weeks of age without any hypoglycemia-induced seizures.

• In addition, Beam observed editing efficiencies up to approximately 60% by next-generation sequencing of DNA isolated from the whole liver.

• SVB Leerink initiated coverage on Beam Therapeutics with Outperform rating, with the price target of $117.

• Related: Beam Therapeutics' Base Editors Show Encouraging Preclinical Action In HBV Infection.

• Price Action: BEAM shares are up 4.12% at $94.45 during the market session on the last check Tuesday.

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