Getting in on the Gene-Editing Wave: Should You Buy CRSP Stock?

Investors who witnessed Moderna’s (Nasdaq: MRNA) meteoric rise during the pandemic know just how profitable new biotechnology companies can be. As a pioneer in gene-editing medicines, CRISPR Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CRSP) could be another up-and-coming biotech stock that you want to keep your eye on.

In December 2023, CRISPR received approval from the FDA to treat sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta-thalassemia with its landmark drug, CASGEVY. However, despite this breakthrough, CRSP stock is down 15% in 2024. 

CRISPR’s Breakthrough Treatment

To start, investors should be careful buying CRSP stock as its success depends almost entirely on CASGEVY over the short term. CRISPR currently has 5 other drugs in clinical programs. But, CASGEVY is its only FDA-approved therapy. For investors, this means that CRISPR’s price will likely be very volatile in the short term. Any good news around CASGEVY will likely send the stock soaring, while bad news could do the opposite.

Despite its limited portfolio of approved drugs, CRISPR’s future seems very strong. Its approved drug, CASGEVY, is a potential cure for sickle cell, a debilitating and life-threatening disease. The company also has 15 more drugs in its pipeline including therapies for hemoglobinopathies, oncology, and regenerative medicine.

Additionally, the company is led (and co-founded) by Emmanuelle Charpentier. Emmanuelle received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system. This just goes to show how cutting-edge CRISPR’s treatments are.

We also can’t discuss CRSP stock without also talking about Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX). 

CRISPR and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX)

Vertex Pharmaceuticals owns 60% of CRISPR’s gene editing therapy for CASGEVY.

Right now, CASGEVY is in a bit of an exploratory phase. It has been approved by the FDA for use in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the US FDA trial, the drug was administered to 31 patients with 93.5% experiencing no major ill side effects. Now, it’s on doctors across the US and UK to recommend this treatment to their patients. When that happens, Vertex will own 60% of all sales and CRISPR will receive 40%.

On one hand, this will undoubtedly take a bite out of CRISPR’s potential profits. However, Vertex and CRISPR plan to charge $2.2 million for CASGEVY treatments. CRISPR’s cut of any prescribed treatments would presumably be 40% of $2.2 million or $880,000 per treatment – still incredibly high for one product.

Additionally, from what I’ve read, Vertex has significantly better commercialization abilities than CRISPR. It’s a bigger company with a much wider influence which will help bring CASGEVY to market and make it more readily available for patients. So, this partnership may actually work out in CRISPR’s favor.

Crispr Technologies Most Recent Quarter

As a cutting-edge biotech company, Crispr Technologies’ income has been all over the place over the last three years.

1. 2023: Annual revenue of $371.2 million and a net loss of $153 million
2. 2022: Annual revenue of $1.2 million and net loss of $650 million
3. 2021: Annual revenue of $914.9 million a net income of $377 million

This type of variability is not uncommon for early-stage biotech companies. These types of companies often spend years churning through investors’ money while they work to develop cures. However, once they’ve developed a viable treatment, revenue and income can go parabolic. Could this be what’s in store for CRSP stock?

Should You Buy CRSP Stock?

Buying early-stage biotech companies is a bit of a gamble.

On one hand, CRSP stock certainly seems poised for a breakout. The company received critical approval for a life-changing drug and yet the stock is down YTD. The company also has a Nobel Prize-winning CEO in charge, which is a great sign of things to come. Crispr Technologies has the potential to do amazing things in the medicinal field over the coming years. If its gene-editing treatments are successful then the stock will undoubtedly soar.

Red Flags to consider. 

For example, how many people will actually buy CASGEVY? According to the FDA, sickle cell impacts just 100,000 people in the US, or 0.0003% of the population. And, for those who have sickle cell, how many will be able to actually afford CASGEVY given its immense price tag of $2.2 million dollars? These questions are difficult to estimate, especially given the US healthcare system’s convoluted use of insurance policies to pay for treatments.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that CRISPR already trades at a valuation of $4.75 billion. Some could argue that the company is immensely overvalued, considering its reported revenue of just $504,000 last quarter. On top of that, sickle cell affects a small portion of the US population. An even smaller percentage of those impacted will actually be able to afford CASGEVY. Finally, when CASGEVY revenue starts coming in, CRISPR will only receive 40%.

CASGEVY approval could be a sign of positive things to come.

It’s important to remember that CASGEVY is just one treatment for a handful of diseases. But, CASGEVY is also based on cutting-edge gene-editing technology. If CRISPR can use its gene-editing therapies to treat more common diseases – cancer, heart disease, etc – then the company’s $4.75 billion valuation might seem incredibly cheap. Who knows how long this type of diversification might take. But, it’s a very positive sign that CRSP stock has upward potential over the long run.

If you’re interested in buying CRSP stock, it might be wise to consider doing so slowly over time. This can help protect you from dramatic swings in the stock’s price. 

I hope that you’ve found this article valuable when it comes to learning about CRSP stock. If you’re interested in learning about other gene editing stocks click here, or please subscribe below to get alerted of new investment opportunities from InvestmentU.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and educational purposes only. It should not be construed as financial advice as the author, Ted Stavetski, is not a financial advisor. Ted also did not own CRSP stock at the time of writing.

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Making an Informed Solana Crypto Price Prediction

When we first started writing about Solana, it is was trading for around $3.50 a token (it’s currently at $165). At that time, making a Solana crypto price prediction didn’t make sense yet. After all, it was pretty new back then. But still, we liked what we saw. The foundational blockchain behind Solana crypto looked strong then. And it looks even stronger now.

At the time, Solana was still very much a speculative investment. But speculators who took the chance have seen a huge increase in value of Solana crypto. And this comes despite a drop-off at the end of 2021 and bear market through ’22 and ’23. However, the next several months or so could be just as interesting.

What caught our attention was the three-point plan to revolutionize the way crypto transactions work. At the time, there were a swath of “to-the-moon” rug pulls and scam coins that seemed to be getting released every week. In fact, some estimates suggest that DeFi (decentralized finance) rug pulls and exit scams make up 99% of all fraud in the crypto markets.

But Solana crypto came to the table with a plan. It didn’t just promise to reward investors. The company started making good on its plan. It also happens to be rewarding investors in the process. That’s why we’re so bullish on this relatively new crypto. And we’re not the only ones. Trading volume has been way up on Solana crypto since it skied to upwards of $250 in the fall of 2021.

Naturally, as exposure grows, there will be ups and downs in line with the greater crypto markets. But it’s a lot easier to make an educated guess about a Solana crypto price prediction now… since it appears it’s just starting to warm up.

Succeeding Where Others Fall Short

Solana crypto’s founder famously published a white paper draft that laid out a new timekeeping technique called Proof of History (PoH). This proposal was developed to fix one of the major limitations cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum faced in terms of scalability. You see, the time that’s required to reach a consensus on transactions was largely seen as a major drawback. But PoH was a way to automate that whole process… And it could act as a crucial element that would allow crypto networks to scale beyond their previous capabilities.

The white paper generated a lot of attention. It wasn’t long before Solana Labs formed. And it began recruiting engineers from the likes of Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Within a couple of years, the team had raised $20 million to fund its new crypto network. And less than a year later, Solana crypto was launched.

In the process, the core team behind Solana has proven the success of the PoH model. The records (or “blocks”) for most cryptos are limited in size and frequency. And that can dramatically slow down transaction times. The PoH model fixes this problem. But the Solana network also uses a Proof of Stake consensus algorithm, which helps keep the network secure.

Solana crypto is also currently exploring ways to reduce transaction fees. When these fees were first introduced, they were a means to keep bad actors from overloading crypto networks. But the speed of the PoH model largely reduces this problem. That makes it cheaper to transfer coins from one wallet to another.

And lastly, Solana crypto excels at avoiding confirmation delays… This just means it won’t take as long for deposits to be processed. In fact, Solana has proven to be able to process 50,000 transactions per second, with a transaction fee of just $0.00001. Not too shabby compared to other tokens.

A Solana Crypto Price Prediction: Why It Still Has Plenty of Upside

Despite the wild moves in value and the technical breakthroughs, it’s important to keep in mind one important detail: The Solana crypto network is no longer in its beta stage. Investors now have access to staking rewards – which seems to be the norm these days. But that’s why a Solana crypto price prediction is so hard to pin down.

The upgrade is now live, and it’s anybody’s guess as to how high Solana crypto can go. But it’s certainly not out of the question that it could reach a triple-digit valuation by the end of the year… especially if it stays on its current production timetable and volatility dies down.

Solana has already shaken up the crypto community. And now that more investors are sitting up and taking note, we’ve got a pretty good feeling that Solana’s future is bright. It set out to revolutionize the way crypto transactions take place. We’re seeing it do that in real time now. In the process, it’s making a whole lot of people’s crypto wallets feel a little bulkier these days, with even more to come.

Even now in 2024, it still has tremendous upside. It hasn’t kept up with the surge in bitcoin, it still follows all of the same fundamentals that make it strong, and it could potentially be in line for the next crypto ETF.

The Bottom Line on the Solana Crypto Price Prediction

Part of what makes the crypto markets so fascinating is that they’re driven by innovation. Another part is that they’re knocked back down by headlines. Crypto expert Andy Snyder has long described crypto as the very definition of a headline-driven market. And it’s true. A tweet from the right person can send the value of a token skyward in a moment’s notice. But Solana isn’t some meme-based token. It’s built on a solid foundation. Don’t expect to see a TITAN-type situation here.

This makes a Solana crypto price prediction a lot easier to make. We don’t expect to see Elon Musk or Mark Cuban making statements about it. But we do expect Solana crypto and the network it’s built on to continue down its path of innovation. So as long as the crypto markets stay relatively healthy, Solana should continue its upward trajectory well past the $100 mark. And in a matter of a few years, if it does indeed become one of the standard cryptos – as we think it could – it should be worth a whole lot more than that.

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