VERV - After a Serious Setback Is Verve Therapeutics a Buy?
2024-04-06 09:50:00 ET
Verve Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VERV) saw its shares crater by 36% on April 2 when it reported that a serious mishap had occurred in one of its clinical trials. Understandably, investors may now question whether the gene-editing biotech has a shot at recovering, or if it's doomed. Let's consider what happened in a bit more depth while doing our best to remain impartial regarding the stock's movement.
Verve's lead program -- called VERVE-101 -- is a gene-editing therapy that's intended to permanently treat or potentially even cure heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH), a hereditary disease that causes dangerously and chronically high levels of LDL-C cholesterol. In the long run, if it is shown to safely work for HeFH, VERVE-101 could be used to treat a wider population of people with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), which affects tens of millions of people in the U.S. and beyond.
But, as you may have guessed, things are not going as planned. Per the company's data update, in VERVE-101's phase 1b clinical trial with 13 patients, one patient experienced a serious adverse event (SAE), also known as a potentially life-threatening side effect. Though the patient did not experience any symptoms, blood tests indicated that their levels of certain heart-health related biomarkers were dangerously high. Thankfully, the patient has already recovered.
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After a Serious Setback, Is Verve Therapeutics a Buy?