Phuong Khanh Morrow, chief medical officer at gene editing company Crispr Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP), resigned unexpectedly.
The move comes a month after Crispr won Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its first gene therapy.
Morrow, a former Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) executive, is leaving as of Jan. 26. The resignation is “not the result of any disagreement with the company,” Crispr said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
Crispr and partner Vertex (NASDAQ:VRTX) recently won approval for Casgevy. Casgevy is a treatment for sickle cell anemia. While it costs $2 million, it can effectively cure the genetic blood disease.
CRSP stock fell about 1.7% overnight. It opened at $65.77 per share, a market capitalization of about $5.2 billion.
Crispr Job Opening
Skeptics note that they have not been told why she’s leaving or who her successor might be.
Morrow is known as P.K. She was previously a professor at Houston’s Texas Medical Center and earned her degrees in Houston. She co-led the hospital’s first multi-disciplinary breast cancer survivorship clinic as well.
Crispr is based on the Crispr-CAS method of gene editing. It won the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry for Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. Charpentier is a co-founder of Crispr.
Casgevy is also used against beta thalassemia. It is the first gene editor to win FDA approval. Crispr also has cancer, diabetes, and heart disease treatments in clinical trials. Its partner, Vertex, is already working on an easier and less expensive treatment for sickle cell.
Crispr stock is up 64% in 2023 but was even on the year before Casgevy was approved. Analysts expect Crispr to report a 2023 loss of $2.67 per share on $324 million in revenue.
CRSP Stock: What Happens Next?
Crispr’s fate will be determined by the success of other drugs in its pipeline rather than Casgevy. That drug may have a limited market due to its cost.
As of this writing, Dana Blankenhorn did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
