Frankly, we've been a little too conservative in our healthcare and pharma picks. We've netted solid gains by sticking with established names, but that's leaving a lot of potential upside on the table.
We are currently in the middle of several different revolutions in human medicine. From the mRNA-based treatments that are exploding out of COVID research, to all the ways Bioinformatics and Computational Biology are quantitatively changing our understanding of how our physiology works, there are a lot of new biotech plays that can potentially explode in the next 10 years as their treatments hit approval.
At the very least, we need to make a few small risky investments to try and catch some of that upside as we move into this new era of biochemical advancement.
But one area that's really starting to hit maturity is gene editing therapies with the CRISPR Cas9 complex that was developed back in 2012.
Maybe you've heard of CRISPR, but basically, this is a biochemical system that allows for remarkably accurate gene editing. Before you tune this out, hear us out for a second.
Errors in our genetic code are at the root of a lot of diseases, and CRISPR is a system that, if properly developed, could allow us to make treatments for a lot of genetic ailments. So, after years of development, we're finally seeing some companies start bringing CRISPR-based treatments to market.
A lot of these are extreme long shots and will likely burn out, but one company we've researched stands the best chance to succeed: Intellia Therapeutics ($NTLA).
Intellia has done brilliant work developing treatments for genetic issues using the CRISPR system, and they are the "only" tech firm that has actually demonstrated the efficacy of their technology in the body. They currently have two treatments transitioning to later-stage clinical trials, and both are progressing very well. Basically, they picked diseases that are far more treatable by this technology, but we'll get into that in a bit.
In short, if gene editing is actually going to be used as medicine for people, we believe Intellia Therapeutics is going to be one of the first big winners here as they have hit key milestones in the clinical trials process. We're initiating a small, speculative position in NTLA to grab some big upside down the road as the landscape for this new kind of medicine develops.
So let's talk about these bold new frontiers in medicine and the factors that make Intellia so potentially dominant. 👇