Editas plunges after early data from retinal disorder therapy study

ProQR Therapeutics NV

29/09/2021 18:09

(Updates)
    ** Shares of gene-editing therapy developer Editas Medicine
Inc  EDIT.O  fall 20.7% to a near 2-month low of $41.60 in
mid-day trading
    ** Stock set for biggest 1-day pct drop since March 2020
after EDIT reports initial data from a study testing three doses
of its experimental gene editing treatment for blindness due to
Leber congenital amaurosis 10 - a retinal disorder
    ** Says one patient who received a mid-level dose of the
therapy showed visual improvement of about 0.7 on the logMAR
scale, which was sustained at six months follow-up  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nGNX7wkn6T
    ** Truist Securities analyst Joon Lee attributes the fall in
EDIT shares to comparisons with a rival treatment by ProQR
Therapeutics  PRQR.O  which led to an improvement of 0.93 logMAR
in a study in 2019 (https://bit.ly/39LxFI4)
    ** Lee says the visual improvement demonstrated by EDIT's
therapy is clinically relevant and needed for an FDA approval,
citing conversations with experts 
    ** Almost 7.5 mln EDIT shares traded so far, 5x its 25-DMA
volume, stock's busiest day in three months 
    ** PRQR down nearly 1%, shares of gene editing companies
Intellia Therapeutics Inc  NTLA.O , CRISPR Therapeutics  CRSP.O 
and Beam Therapeutics Inc  BEAM.O  down between 0.9% and 2%


 (Reporting by Amruta Khandekar)
 ((Amruta.Khandekar@thomsonreuters.com;))