Nearly a decade ago, consultants delivered to Rodger Novak a kind of Sears catalog of human malady: 200 pages, listing dozens of different diseases, each annotated with — from a business standpoint — their best and worst attributes. 

The document was supposed to help Novak, then the chief executive of CRISPR Therapeutics, navigate a pressing quandary. His company, along with two others, were founded to commercialize the new revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, which promised to cure numerous genetic diseases. But which should they target first? What was the best proof-of-concept?

advertisement

“We looked at anything and everything,” said Novak, who stepped down as CEO in 2017 but remained on the board until this year. 

Get unlimited access to award-winning journalism and exclusive events.