CRISPR Therapeutics Has $2.4 Billion in Cash and an Approved Drug. Why Is Its Stock Trading Nearly 40% Below the Wall Street Consensus?
Written by James Brumley for The Motley Fool -> The biotech has won approval for one of the few gene-editing therapies on the market. Several more therapies based on the same science are in the works. Like most young biopharma companies, this one is going through the usual gro
The biotech has won approval for one of the few gene-editing therapies on the market.
Several more therapies based on the same science are in the works.
Like most young biopharma companies, this one is going through the usual growing pains.
By all accounts, CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) shares should be soaring. The company shares rights to one of the healthcare industry's very few approved gene-editing therapies, and has several more in the works.
Initial interest in its sole approved treatment is solid, too. Despite a steep price tag of $2.2 million per patient, over 500 people have at least begun using its single marketed therapy, one that was only approved in late 2023. And the debt-light $5.5 billion company has over $2.4 billion worth of liquidity, while analysts' consensus price target of $80.62 is 40% above the stock's current price.
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Yet shares of the biopharma are seemingly stuck, unable to make any progress since 2022, even though its story has become so much more compelling during this time frame. What gives? Nothing that's really all that surprising, all things considered. And the stock's stagnation isn't a reason not to take a swing on it sooner rather than later.
CRISPR Therapeutics is obviously a biopharma name -- but it's a unique one. Co-founder Emmanuelle Charpentier and her research collaborator Jennifer Doudna co-invented the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technique. It not only became the scientific basis for the company's drugs, but also won the pair a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020.
