In the five years since Italy-based Chiesi Group established its rare disease division in Boston, the unit has landed regulatory approvals worldwide for 10 therapies — all small molecules and engineered proteins . More recently, the company has been exploring how to grow its portfolio in ways that could have a larger and longer-lasting impact for patients. The next piece of this strategy takes the company into genetic medicines.

Chiesi Global Rare Diseases had worked with oral small molecules and enzyme replacement therapies because those were the types of drugs the company knew well, said Giacomo Chiesi, executive vice president of the rare disease unit. But he added that growth requires new modalities where the unit has no experience. The company is now adding CRISPR-based gene-edit

See Full Page