Better Buy: Crispr Therapeutics vs. bluebird bio

bluebird bio (NASDAQ: BLUE) is a biotech company that focuses on gene editing. This technology seeks to treat diseases by replacing the defective genes responsible for them with their healthy counterparts. Year to date, shares of Bluebird are down by 33.9%, which is significantly worse than the performance of the S&P 500, which is down by 11.4% since the beginning of the year.

Bluebird has also been outperformed by one of its competitors in the gene-editing industry, namely CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP). Shares of CRISPR are down by 13.1% since the year started. With that said, past performance isn't a guarantee of anything. To figure out which stock will outperform the other from here on out, let's dig a little deeper into these companies' respective businesses.

CRISPR Therapeutics currently has no approved products. However, the company has a very promising pipeline candidate called CTX001. This product is a potential treatment for transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia (TDT) and sickle cell disease (SCD), both of which are blood disorders. Last year, CRISPR Therapeutics reported positive results from a clinical trial investigating the safety and efficacy of CTX001 as a treatment for TDT and SCD. The trial involved two patients, one with TDT and one with SCD.

Source Fool.com