What happened
Shares of clinical-stage biotech Editas Medicine (EDIT -1.07%) rose as much as 14% on Monday, lifted by a trend over the past couple of days favoring gene-editing stocks. Editas stock also benefited from the news last week that the company was appointing a new chairman of the board and a new independent director.
The stock is up more than 20% over the past five days, though it is still down more than 10% so far this year.
So what
Several gene-editing companies saw their shares rise when it was reported that the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), an independent group, said that exa-cel -- a one-dose treatment for sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT) being developed by CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP 1.08%) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX 0.10%) -- would be cost-effective, at under $1.9 million per dose, compared to the long-term costs most SCD patients face.
Though Editas was not specifically mentioned in ICER's draft report, the company has an early stage cell-editing SCD and TDT treatment of its own, EDIT-301, so the move up is a sympathetic play for the industry.
Editas also made news when it announced on Thursday that current independent director Emma Reeve is becoming the company's new chairman of the board, replacing James C. Mullen. Editas also announced the appointment of new independent director Elliott Levy.
Now what
Editas still has a long way to go to develop EDIT-301, and by late Monday afternoon, the stock's increase had eased to slightly more than 5%. The company also is in a relatively tight financial situation with $437.4 million in cash, as of Dec. 31, enough to fund operations into 2025, it says.
Editas lost $220.4 million last year and has undergone several cost-cutting measures, trimming staff and halting clinical trials on its EDIT-101 therapy to treat a rare genetic eye disease. It also said on Jan. 19 that it was selling its iNK cell franchise to Shoreline Biosciences.
