As most will agree, the search for the medical cures of tomorrow will ultimately be found inside the Human Genome. And those cures will be treated by editing the gene sequences to eliminate the defective sequences. We're only now scratching the surface of this relatively new technology and there'll be both corporate winners and losers in the years ahead. Today I want to look at three gene editing companies that are on the cutting edge of this movement and could be the big winners in this nascent scientific endeavor.
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Editas Medicine, Inc. operates as a genome editing company. It focuses on treating patients with genetically defined diseases by correcting their disease causing genes. It is developing a proprietary genome editing platform based on CRISPR technology to target genetically defined diseases with an initial focus on debilitating illnesses where there are no approved treatments. Editas Medicine, Inc. has a collaboration and license agreement with Juno Therapeutics, Inc. for the research and development of engineered T cells with chimeric antigen receptors and T cell receptors; and collaboration, option, and license agreement with Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. to explore the delivery of genome editing medicines for the treatment of inherited retinal diseases. The company was formerly known as Gengine, Inc. and changed its name to Editas Medicine Inc. in November 2013. Editas Medicine, Inc. was founded in 2013 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(Summary) (Company) (Chart)
| 17 September 2017 Price $20.94 1yr Target $35.25 Analysts 6 Dividend $0.00 Payout Ratio 0.00% 1yr Cap Gain 68.33% Yield 0.00% 1yr Tot Return 68.33% P/E --- PEG --- Beta --- | EPS (ttm) $-3.19 EPS next yr $-2.85 Forward P/E --- EPS next 5yr --- 1yr Price Support --- Market Cap $876.55 Mil Revenues $5.60 Mil Earnings $-117.90 Mil Profit Margin --- Quick Ratio 6.70 Current Ratio 6.70 Debt/Equity 0.26 | 1yr RevGR --- 3yr RevGR --- 5yr RevGR --- 1yr EarnGR --- 3yr EarnGR --- 5yr EarnGR --- 1yr DivGR --- 3yr DivGR --- 5yr DivGR --- ROA -38.20% ROE -67.80% |
Intellia Therapeutics Inc., a gene editing company, focuses on the development of therapeutics utilizing a biological tool known as the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The company develops in vivo programs focused on liver diseases, including transthyretin amyloidosis, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, hepatitis B virus, and inborn errors of metabolism programs. Its ex vivo pipeline includes proprietary and partnered programs focuses on chimeric antigen receptor T cells and hematopoietic stem cells. Intellia Therapeutics Inc. has collaboration agreement with Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc.; Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; and Caribou Biosciences, Inc. The company was formerly known as AZRN, Inc. and changed its name to Intellia Therapeutics Inc. in July 2014. Intellia Therapeutics Inc. was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(Summary) (Company) (Chart)
(Summary) (Company) (Chart)
| 17 September 2017 Price $22.68 1yr Target $27.17 Analysts 6 Dividend $0.00 Payout Ratio 0.00% 1yr Cap Gain 19.79% Yield 0.00% 1yr Tot Return 19.79% P/E --- PEG --- Beta --- | EPS (ttm) $-1.33 EPS next yr $-2.06 Forward P/E --- EPS next 5yr --- 1yr Price Support --- Market Cap $794.93 Mil Revenues $22.60 Mil Earnings $-46.30 Mil Profit Margin --- Quick Ratio 9.30 Current Ratio 9.30 Debt/Equity 0.00 | 1yr RevGR --- 3yr RevGR --- 5yr RevGR --- 1yr EarnGR --- 3yr EarnGR --- 5yr EarnGR --- 1yr DivGR --- 3yr DivGR --- 5yr DivGR --- ROA -16.20 ROE -22.70% |
CRISPR Therapeutics AG, a gene editing company, focuses on developing transformative gene-based medicines for the treatment of serious human diseases using its proprietary clustered, regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats associated protein-9 (CRISPR/Cas9)gene-editing platform in Switzerland. The CRISPR/Cas9 technology allows for changes to genomic DNA. It has a collaboration agreement with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Incorporated to develop, manufacture, commercialize, sell, and use therapeutics; a license agreement with Anagenesis Biotechnologies SAS; and a service agreement with MaSTherCell SA to develop and manufacture allogeneic CAR-T therapies. The company also has research collaboration agreements with Neon Therapeutics and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center to develop novel T cell therapies for cancer. CRISPR Therapeutics AG is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.
(Summary) (Company) (Chart)
(Summary) (Company) (Chart)
| 17 September 2017 Price $19.19 1yr Target $23.80 Analysts 5 Dividend $0.00 Payout Ratio 0.00% 1yr Cap Gain 24.02% Yield 0.00% 1yr Tot Return 24.02% P/E --- PEG --- Beta --- | EPS (ttm) $-0.07 EPS next yr $-3.02 Forward P/E --- EPS next 5yr --- 1yr Price Support --- Market Cap $793.89 Mil Revenues $10.20 Mil Earnings $-41.40 Mil Profit Margin --- Quick Ratio 17.80 Current Ratio 17.80 Debt/Equity 0.00 | 1yr RevGR --- 3yr RevGR --- 5yr RevGR --- 1yr EarnGR --- 3yr EarnGR --- 5yr EarnGR --- 1yr DivGR --- 3yr DivGR --- 5yr DivGR --- ROA -13.20% ROE -28.40% |
My Path Forward
This really is the future of BioTechnology and to not have a stake in it is just crazy. These may not be the eventual winners but this early in the development of this science it's prudent to be in the game. So my path forward, based on my limited knowledge of gene editing limited to a few college courses, is to buy a small position in all three companies. This is based on the fact that all three companies are tied in with, and partnered with, some large capitalization pharma companies that have the financial backing to push this forward.
I expect to get a lot of my investing intelligence from the daily, weekly and monthly charts. I will be watching the price and volume movements to determine what other investors and traders are buying and selling. That may seem like simply following the crowd, and in many ways it is, I'll be watching the momentum indicators to try to anticipate moves both up and down. I'll also rely on earnings expectations and announcements to look for changes from quarter to quarter and year to year.
Over time I should be able to determine the winners and losers. And the winners are the ones I'll be increasingly adding to my portfolio.
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