According to Bloomberg, there’s a new big fish in the medical technology pond. Crispr Therapeutics AG jumped in value, multiplied by six, and landed at $3 billion. How is that possible considering the company’s technology remains virtually untested? Keep reading to learn more, or follow the original story here.
Crispr Therapeutics AG is a company with a lot to promise. They share a name with a powerful new idea and technology that hopes to cure rare diseases like sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. There are also plans for the therapy to be effective against genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy.
The secret is what Crispr’s Chief Executive Officer Samarth Kulkarni describes as “a whole new class of medicines.”
Crispr is not creating an injection, or a pill, they’re creating something like what you’d see in a movie: the ability to treat disease by editing genes.
Many skeptics and careful analysts wonder how much of this idea can really come to reality. Especially since Crispr has no experience testing their science with human participants. Right now the potential breakthrough remains just that – potential.
Perhaps that won’t be the case for long, however. Crispr’s first results with human patients is likely to be within the year.
The gene editing therapy boasts that it only need be administered once. And soon the first patient will have the opportunity to experience that in Crispr’s lead study on treating beta-thalassemia.
Kulkarni says that the money they’ve gained will be put to work. It is his intention that the influx of capital will be working over the next three or four years to help build Crispr into a great company.
Kulkarni quotes Genetech and Regeneron as goals for the scale and impact of Crispr. He continues to say that while this upcoming test may be Crispr’s first time in the clinical limelight, it will not be their last clinical effort. “These are the first forays into the clinic,” says Kulkarni, “but there will be many more.”
