Shares of Crispr Therapeutics Inc. were down 5.8% in premarket trading on Wednesday, the day after the company announced data from a Phase 1 clinical trial for its CAR-T cell therapy candidate. Wall Street analysts are skeptical about the experimental therapy’s potential in the competitive CAR-T market. Crispr’s therapy enrolled 30 patients with large B-cell lymphoma; the company said the data indicates that CTX110 can produce durable remissions, and it is considering “consolidation dosing,” which analysts say means a two-dose strategy. “CTX110 doesn’t look competitive [versus] alternative CAR-T approaches, and CRSP is now pivoting to a ‘consolidation dosing’ strategy to attempt to differentiate (or remain viable),” Raymond James analyst Steven Seedhouse wrote in an investor note on Wednesday. “We expect it could only responsibly be used as a last-line salvage therapy.” “We expect the stock debate to center around the likelihood that this will improve durability,” Stifel analysts said. “Theoretically it seems possible, though the little multi-dose data that we have doesn’t give us enough confidence to build a thesis around this.” Crispr’s stock is down 33.0% this year, while the broader S&P 500 is up 15.8%.
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