With shares down by 60% in the last three years, Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT) investors are experiencing a bumpy ride despite the company's impeccable gene-editing credentials. But for a biotech that's in the running to be one of the world's leading gene-therapy developers, share prices aren't an indicator of its long-term chances of success.

Hitting a home run in clinical trials could be enough to revitalize the buzz around its innovative gene-editing platform. Still, there are reasons to believe that Editas stock might not recover anytime soon, even if its ambitions remain alive. So to decide whether it's a smart purchase this year and beyond, let's look at what's on the company's radar.

Perhaps the best argument against buying Editas stock is that its drug development pipeline is about to be rendered much less lucrative thanks to a competitor. CRISPR Therapeutics, working in conjunction with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, is on the cusp of finalizing the regulatory approval package for the pair's jointly developed gene therapies for beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease. That could lead to those therapies being commercialized quite soon.

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Source Fool.com