EDIT Editas Medicine

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Hello my fellow investing travelers,
I listened to an interesting podcast hosted by David Gardner (Motley Fool Rule Breakers). David and his guest Matt Argersinger (of the Odyssey One portfolio) briefly discussed a company called Editas Medicine (EDIT). I found it interesting, and it might be a possibility for you to consider adding to your portfolio. The company’s website is: www.editasmedicine.com

What do they do?
Editas Medicine is focused on translating the power and potential of the CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cpf1 genome editing systems into a robust pipeline of treatments for people living with serious diseases around the world. Editas Medicine aims to discover, develop, manufacture, and commercialize transformative, durable, precision genomic medicines for a broad class of diseases.

What is CRISPR?
CRISPR is a dynamic, versatile tool that allow us to target nearly any genomic location and potentially repair broken genes. CRISPR technology uses a protein-RNA complex composed of either the protein Cas9 or Cpf1, each of which binds to a guide RNA (gRNA) molecule that has been designed to recognize a particular DNA sequence. Editas Medicine has developed a proprietary genome editing platform consisting of four interrelated components that are design to meet the goals of (1) efficiently edit a wide range of mutations (2) reach the site of the disease (3) tightly control the cutting of DNA and (4) achieve the right repair.

Highlights of their fourth quarter and 2017 results:
Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities at December 31, 2017, were $329.1 million, compared to $295.7 million at September 30, 2017, and $185.3 million at December 31, 2016.
For the three months ended December 31, 2017, net loss attributable to common stockholders was $36.2 million, or $0.84 per share, compared to $39.4 million, or $1.10 per share, for the same period in 2016.
For the full year 2017, net loss attributable to common stockholders was $120.3 million, or $2.98 per share, compared to $97.2 million, or $3.02 per share, for 2016.

I opened a small position to help me better follow the company. I hope you find this overview helpful!

TracyK

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So what are their lead treatments, how far along in clinical trials are they, and what’s their competition look like?

And how do they survive the initial bump in sales with curative treatment and the inevitable Cliff jump of sales?

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Hello my fellow investing travelers,
I listened to an interesting podcast hosted by David Gardner (Motley Fool Rule Breakers). David and his guest Matt Argersinger (of the Odyssey One portfolio) briefly discussed a company called Editas Medicine (EDIT). I found it interesting, and it might be a possibility for you to consider adding to your portfolio. The company’s website is: www.editasmedicine.com

I have been following CRISPR related activities for a few years and have held a few of the companies previously. I am currently not holding any but continue to watch. One thing to be aware of is that it will likely take to 2022 before any of them get a drug into Phase III. Even with all the cash they are currently holding, they will have to go back to the raise more funds. But they have had an amazing run up in the last 1 year

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There are 3 competing companies, EDIT, CRSP, NTLA. I have a basket where I put 50% in EDIT, 25% in CRSP and 25% in NTLA. These are extremely promising companies that could really change the world of medicine and I have spoken about them before on this board. I do believe they are worth of a basket of you high-spec funds.

EDIT and CSPR must be held together. They are strong competitors and are founded by the people how discovered the technology at about the same time a different universities. The should both be held because of their patent battle. CRSP founders filed for patent first, but EDIT founders got the patent first. This seems unfair, did one just have a faster processor at the patent office? Any, there are some lawsuits going on and EDIT has one so far. But I think this will be huge and if one loses bad enough to go out of business than you can still be a winner. intella (NTLA) is a little more focused on agricutlural gene splicing, so that is a nice diversity.

These have had a great run and you are sad that you did not get in earlier, but I think there can be years to go. I also think we are moving up on the hype cycle and there will be a big disappointment sell off someday, for for now it is all hope and glory.

What’s so cool? This is a simple process based on a natual defense mechanisim found in bacteria. To fight viral infections, they can resplice their genes to counter a viral attack. EDIT and CSPR founders turned this into a simple mechanism for precisely spicing genes.

For example, they have modified mosquitoes to be immune to carrying malira virus, dengue fever, chikungunya and zika. They have not release these, but what they did shows the massive power of this technology. They easily made this modification and then bred with regular mosquitoes. they expected Mendelian results, with 50% of offspring getting the modified gene and 50% not, but they were amazed, maybe stunned to get 100% dominance. This meant that they could release a relatively small amount in an area and they would quickly take over, eliminating the aforementioned viruses in that area. They were a little scrared, so they also modified a gene to give the mosquitoes red eyes so they could recognize them. As amazing, they could resplice and all the offspring would go back to the old, regular mosquitoes and become dominant. Let that all settle for a second…

wow…

Just think, if they moved forward with this, they could probably save 10x or 1000x more lives than would be taken by global warming in the next 100 years! (STOP, no global warming responses!!!)

Right now, it is said that for $1000, you can prevent a death from malaria. The cost of this mosquito fix per life save is probably pennies.

Extrapolate that to human and think all the benefits. So many cogenital diseases could be cured. EDIT and Allergan are working on a genetic blindness disease, one where the genes have too much dna data in them. This fix snips out the excess genetic material and you are no longer blind. This is in trials. But think of Muscular Distrophy. Think of how much cheaper this is than the processes used by Juno, Kite, Bluebird (Nektar?).

You must see how huge this could be.

Ok, I am quite excited about this and you should be too, but temper it with the knowledge that something could go terribly wrong and they go out of business (social uprising, regulation, ignorance base fear, etc.)

I think you have to own some, but as a small portion of portfolio. It could go 10x in 5 years, so you don’t have to invest a lot.

Just my thoughts, but it was good enough for some people that also “pick” a number of stocks we see on this board.

P.

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