Gene-editing stocks have been on a roll over the past couple of days. Following some solid clinical results from one particular gene-editing company, the rest of the industry has seen a continuous, multi-day stock price explosion. Going well into Wednesday (and probably Thursday as well), gene-editing stocks surged in value, with a few reporting massive double-digit gains.
The trend first started on Monday, when Intellia Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NTLA) reported over the weekend that results for its new gene-editing drug candidate, NTLA-2001, were better than anticipated. A phase 1 trial regarding the treatment showed that it was indeed able to genetically edit cells inside the livers of patients with a type of fatal nerve and heart disease. The results showed that NTLA-2001 was able to almost completely shut down the production of toxic proteins in the liver associated with the diseases.
Whether that sounds impressive to you or not, it’s big news not just for Intellia but even for the rest of the gene-editing industry at large. Given just how experimental most gene-editing drugs are, there still is plenty of safety concerns surrounding them. There isn’t a single gene-editing treatment that’s been approved yet, and the vast majority are still just in phase 1 trials. In theory, gene-editing is game-changing for the biotech world, but the industry still needs to make this a reality.
As such, any piece of good news on the gene-editing front tends to have a spillover effect on the rest of the industry. That’s why most gene-editing stocks soared on the news as well, not just Intellia. Throughout Monday and Tuesday, most companies in this sector have seen double-digit percentage gains.
This trend continued to pick up steam on Wednesday. Intellia was up 6.8%, having already made major gains earlier this week. This also includes the company offering more than $600 million in stock in order to raise further funds to help develop its more promising NTLA-2001 treatment.
Other big winners on Wednesday include Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT), which was up 22.8% by the end of the day. Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BEAM) is another big winner, up 16.2%, not to mention having skyrocketed almost 50% on Monday. There’s also CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP), which was gaining 7.6% on Wednesday as well.
Gene-editing treatments are primarily focused on a few different areas at the moment. The first of which being blood clotting disorders. Besides that, genetic diseases that are prevalent in children are also seen as a potentially lucrative field to develop treatments in. Although these specific conditions have very small patient populations, price tags for treatments in this area can range into the millions of dollars. Hence why small biotechs, like those in the gene-editing space, could still make a fortune if only one of these candidates become a success.
Intellia Company Profile
Intellia Therapeutics Inc is a genome editing company. It is focused on developing proprietary, potentially curative CRISPR/Cas9-based therapeutics. Its pipeline includes in vivo development programs targeting genetic diseases, including transthyretin amyloidosis and hereditary angioedema, and ex vivo programs which include Acute Myeloid Leukemia. – Warrior Trading News
