Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA 1.37%) is presenting positive new data regarding a pair of its promising gene-editing programs at a medical conference taking place in Banff, Canada. Investors applauded the news by bidding up shares of Intellia, and other major gene-editing stocks shot up as well.

The first of the candidates Intellia's researchers will report on, NTLA-5001, is a treatment for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rare type of cancer that causes the bone marrow to produce abnormal white and red blood cells. The company will also be providing preclinical results regarding its treatment for hereditary angioedema (HAE), an autoimmune disorder that's characterized by excessive swelling in various parts of the body.

A person holding some scissors making a small cut of a genome.

Image source: Getty Images.

"We are observing very favorable preclinical data with our engineered T cells, and we are moving ahead with IND-enabling studies and manufacturing for NTLA-5001, to enable a regulatory submission in the first half of 2021," said Intellia President and CEO John Leonard.

Further details

Shares of Intellia were up 9.1% Monday, and other gene-editing stocks such as CRISPR Therapeutics and Editas Medicine rose by similar percentages. Although gene-editing biotechs often have some overlap in their treatment candidate portfolios (sickle-cell disease is one condition that most such companies are targeting), they still are at fairly early stages of research and clinical development.

As such, positive results regarding CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology, even when they come from potential competitors, are seen as good news for companies throughout the niche.