Three biotech stocks cash in on claims of world’s first genetically-edited babies
Investors have brushed off the naysayers and bet on companies developing the same technology as the Chinese researcher who produced the gene-altered babies
New York — Gene-editing stocks traded higher after a Chinese researcher claimed to have produced the world’s first genetically-edited babies. The trio of public companies developing therapies using the technology known as Crispr, the method He Jiankui claimed to use in China, outperformed peers on Monday as the broader biotech market rebounded. Crispr Therapeutics rallied 4.5%, while Editas Medicine rose 3% and Intellia Therapeutics gained 5.5%. Sangamo Therapeutics, a firm that uses a gene-editing platform known as Zinc finger nuclease, rose as much as 3.4%. Several Chinese institutions distanced themselves from Jiankui’s claims, which cannot be verified without an independent review, yet that has not stopped investors stepping back into bullish bets on the stocks exposed to potential success. And the group has proved resilient to previous potential setbacks, including studies suggesting the technique could promote cancer-causing mutations in cells and hesitance from US regulators ...
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