Why Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Triumphed On Tuesday
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX), a commercial-stage biotech specializing in treatments for cystic fibrosis, saw its share price rise on Tuesday thanks to news about one of its pipeline programs. As a result, its stock climbed by nearly 3% on the day, in contrast to the S&P 500 Index's 0.2% slump.
That morning, Vertex and partner CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) announced that the former company has secured a rolling review from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel) to treat a pair of maladies: Sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT).
Exa-cel is described by Vertex as "an investigational, autologous, ex vivo CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy... in which a patient's own hematopoietic stem cells are edited to produce high levels of fetal hemoglobin" or HbF. HbF is the type of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin present during the development of the fetus. It changes to "adult" hemoglobin following birth.
Source Fool.com
