VRTX - Editas Just Caught a Break Thanks to Vertex Pharmaceuticals
2023-12-23 08:02:00 ET
It's fair to say that Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT) is an ailing biotech. Over the past three years, its share price has fallen by 83% as it abandoned parts of its pipeline and laid off staff. Despite its supposedly powerful gene-editing technology, the company is struggling to advance its clinical programs to the point where they might be commercialized and generate revenue.
Thankfully for Editas shareholders, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX) just gave the business a much-needed break -- one that might even portend a brighter future for the stock.
Per the agreement announced on Dec. 13, Vertex will non-exclusively license Editas' Cas-9 gene-editing technology for its applications in sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia, a pair of hereditary blood disorders. The license explicitly applies to Vertex's near-curative gene therapy for sickle cell disease, Casgevy, which it developed in collaboration with CRISPR Therapeutics , and which earned Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval on Dec. 8. The FDA is scheduled to make a decision on Casgevy's approval as a treatment for beta-thalassemia by the end of March.
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Editas Just Caught a Break Thanks to Vertex Pharmaceuticals