CRSP CRISPR Therapeutics AG

On August 30, 2019, CRISPR Therapeutics AG (the “Company”) entered into an Open Market Sale Agreement^SM (the “Agreement”) with Jefferies LLC (“Jefferies”) under which the Company may offer and sell (the “Offering”), from time to time at its sole discretion through Jefferies, as its sales agent, its common shares, par value of CHF 0.03 per share (the “Common Shares”), having an aggregate offering price of up to $200,000,000.

Subject to the terms and conditions of the Agreement, Jefferies has agreed to use its commercially reasonable efforts, consistent with its normal trading and sales practices and applicable law and regulations, to sell all of the Common Shares so designated by the Company as sales agent in accordance with an instruction from the Company. The sales, if any, of the Common Shares under the Agreement will be made by any method permitted that is deemed an “at the market offering” as defined in Rule 415(a)(4) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or, with the Company’s prior consent, in negotiated transactions or block transactions. The Agreement provides that the commission payable to Jefferies for sales of Common Shares with respect to which Jefferies acts as sales agent shall be up to 3.0% of the gross sales price for such Common Shares sold pursuant to the Agreement. The Agreement contains customary representations and warranties of the parties and indemnification and contribution provisions under which the Company and Jefferies have agreed to indemnify each other against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Jefferies and the Company have the right, by giving written notice as specified in the Agreement, to terminate the Agreement.

The foregoing description of the Agreement is not complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Agreement, a copy of which is filed as Exhibit 1.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

The Common Shares will be offered and sold pursuant to the Company’s previously filed automatically effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-227427) filed by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on September 19, 2018. On August 30, 2019, the Company filed a prospectus supplement with the SEC in connection with the offer and sale of the Common Shares pursuant to the Agreement.

The legal opinion of Walder Wyss AG relating to the legality of the issuance and sale of the Common Shares in the Offering is attached as Exhibit 5.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K. This Current Report on Form 8-K shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities discussed herein, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation, or sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.