Before the COVID-19 pandemic, biopharma outfit Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP -3.88%) was anything but a household name. Given the potential of its science, however, the coronavirus contagion put the company -- and its stock -- on the proverbial map. Shares soared nearly 570% from their early-2020 low to their early-2021 high on hopes that the company might have something constructive to offer in the war on the pandemic.
Like so many other stocks with similar potential though, this one gave up most of those gains once the coronavirus outbreak subsided, ending the need for further treatments or vaccines.
Still, this dip is a buying opportunity for risk-tolerant investors.
Crispr Therapeutics missed the (first) boat...
Crispr Therapeutics’ core science is gene-editing. The company’s co-founders not only developed a way of identifying faulty DNA, but then removing and even replacing damaged genetic material with a corrected gene segment.
The science clearly has amazing implications. As you might also imagine though, this science can also be difficult and time-consuming to apply. The pandemic came and went before Crispr’s technology could provide any significant beneficial impact. That’s the chief reason shares fell more than 80% from their 2021 peak to their multi-year low reached in October of last year.
Even so, the stock’s still up to the tune of 60% for the past five years. A $5,000 investment in Crispr Therapeutics stock then would roughly be worth $8,000 today.
...But the science still works
The irony of the matter is, although Crispr Therapeutics ended up not being a key participant in the war on COVID-19, the pandemic did push its science into the spotlight. Since then the company’s Casgevy -- co-created with Vertex Pharmaceuticals -- has become the United States’ first-ever approved drug based on Crispr Therapeutics’ gene-editing biotechnology. It won’t likely be the last though. A handful more such drugs are in Crispr’s R&D pipeline.
And that’s compelling. While this ticker remains a risky trade that’s only appropriate for patient, risk-tolerant investors, the science works. Like most other young sciences, it’s going to take time for this one to prove itself.
