Stocks are mixed this morning with all three benchmarks teetering near their record highs.
Yesterday we released our Stock Hotlist: Biotech Stocks to Buy Now, where we highlighted some well established biotech firms that already boast strong pipelines. In case you missed that article, you can find it here. As biotech investing catches on, there has been movement into lesser established biotech firms with big innovations.
Cambiar Investors’ Charmaine Chan says investors have switched their attention from cash flow to growth, favoring more “emerging” biotech stocks. Investors prefer drugs that treat diseases in a new way, “rather than a portfolio of drugs that uses more ‘established’ technology with smaller peak sales potential.”
Our trade alert for today highlights an exciting emerging biotech opportunity for members of our community who are looking to get in early on what some experts are calling “the next big wave in biotech”.
CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP). CRISPR is one of several companies founded to commercialize the gene editing technique CRISPR-Cas9, for which Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute and Jennifer Doudna of UC-Berkeley won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. CRISPR itself was co-founded by Charpentier, Shaun Foy and Rodger Novak, who is president and chairman.
CRISPR currently has a treatment for sickle cell disease, as well as three anti-cancer compounds, in early-stage studies. It has six more compounds in the research stage.
Like other early-stage companies, CRISPR’s stock can be highly volatile based on the results of drug trials. The shares recently fell 10% after a patient died during the Phase 1 study of its CTX110, a treatment for B-cell lymphoma also targeted by Incyte’s Monjuvi.
“We believe CRISPR continues to execute, and we view dosing in six clinical trials positively as it shows the rapid development of the company’s pipeline and technology,” writes William Blair analyst Raju Prasad, who rates CRSP at Outperform. “The anticipated data readout from CTX001 (for sickle cell disease) presents a near-term catalyst for the company and, if positive, could result in significant upside. In addition, 2021 is setting up to be a catalyst-rich year for the company with data readouts across its immuno-oncology pipeline and the initiation of a Phase I/II trial with ViaCyte for the treatment of diabetes Type I.”
He adds that the company “Could be a potential takeout candidate” given the optionality of the CRISPR-Cas9 platform and potential cost-effectiveness.
Of 17 analysts offering recommendations for CRSP, 9 rate the stock a “Strong Buy”, 1 rates it “Buy”, 5 say the stock is a “Hold”, and 2 analysts give a “Strong Sell” rating.
Where to invest $1,000 right now...
Before you consider buying CRISPR Therapeutics, you'll want to see this.
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And it's not CRISPR Therapeutics.
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But you have to act now, because a catalyst coming in a few weeks is set to take this company mainstream... And by then, it could be too late.
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