Baird finds ‘incremental negative’ in Crispr’s 2024 outlook

Baird keeps a Neutral rating on Crispr Therapeutics with a $46 price target after the company put out its 2024 outlook. While updates in the outlook were largely inline with expectations, the disclosure surrounding the cell therapy programs in diabetes surrounding Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ (VRTX) decision to opt-out of the legacy ViaCyte collaboration “could serve as an incremental negative,” the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says the decision by Vertex will result in Crispr being solely responsible for the continued development of CTX211. While Vertex and Crispr will continue to collaborate on their preclinical research surrounding the development of CRISPR-Cas9 edited hypoimmune cell therapies for type-1 diabetes, this collaboration is earlier in the development cycle, notes Baird. Additionally, the firm sees Vertex’s positive discussion of early data from competing diabetes cell therapy in its 2024 outlook as also having the potential to dampen near-term expectations for Crispr’s products in this area.