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CRISPR Therapeutics reported that its flagship treatment, Casgevy, brought in $99 million this quarter. This is a 30 percent increase from the previous three months and nearly six times what it earned a year ago. While the company lost $1.15 per share, slightly more than the $1.04 analysts expected, this is normal for a biotech firm that is spending heavily to turn its research into a broad business.
Beyond its first product, the company is making progress on treatments for more common conditions. The FDA granted a special status to CTX310, a treatment for high cholesterol, which can speed up the approval process. The company also finished enrolling patients for a trial of CTX611, which aims to help people recovering from knee surgery. For a company trying to prove it is more than a one-hit wonder, seeing these newer programs move toward final testing is as important as the sales growth of its first drug.
See the full quarter, and how our tracked metrics did
Source: 8-K filing
After CRISPR Therapeutics reported its November results, we updated our fair value. We raised our projection for how many patients will start gene therapy treatment each year and added the company's shift toward heart disease treatments to our core assumptions. We also started tracking a new method for editing cells directly inside the body and increased our expectation for the company's total cash reserves.
CRISPR Therapeutics named Siva Sakhamuri as its new Chief Technical Officer, effective immediately. He will oversee the technical operations and manufacturing for the company's growing list of gene-editing treatments.
While this is a senior leadership change, it is a routine hire for a biotech company moving from research into large-scale manufacturing. A long-term owner should watch for how well the company can scale up the production of its first approved treatment, Casgevy, which is a complex process that requires specialized facilities.
Source: GlobeNewsWire
The company is scheduled to share its latest quarterly results on Monday, November 9. Analysts are looking for a loss of about $1.04 per share on roughly $10 million in revenue. For a biotech firm at this stage, the exact profit or loss matters less than the progress of Casgevy, its first-ever approved gene therapy. This report should provide a look at how many patients have started the treatment process, which is the key test of whether this complex and expensive cure can succeed in the real world.
UBS set its price target for the gene-editing firm at $52. This is lower than the average target of $63 among other analysts who follow the company. A price target is what an analyst thinks a stock will be worth in the future. At the current price of about $50, this new target suggests the firm sees limited room for the stock to rise in the near term.
Source: UBS
The company has split its last eight reports between beats and misses, showing that even with a historic drug approval, its path to steady profits remains difficult to predict.
| Expectation | |
|---|---|
| EPS | $-1.25 |
| Revenue | $11M |
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