Editas Medicine Inc

Editas Medicine traded higher on Thursday after Australian authorities cleared a Phase 1/2 trial for the company's gene-editing therapy EDIT-401, and Wells Fargo upgraded the biotech to Overweight from Equal Weight in reaction. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said the Human Research Ethics Committee of Australia approved the initiation of its Phase 1/2 Strive trial for EDIT-401 in patients with hyperlipidemia. Strive is designed to test a single dose of the in vivo gene editing medicine in heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic disorder characterized by high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, also known as bad cholesterol. Wells Fargo analyst Yanan Zhu called the initiation of what the company described as the first-in-human clinical trial of EDIT-401 a key step towards unlocking a highly differentiated LDL-C approach, and raised his price target on the stock to $6 from $4, reflecting revised probability of success assumptions for EDIT-401. Initial safety and tolerability data from Strive are expected in Q1 2027, ahead of topline safety and efficacy data from Part 1 of the study anticipated later that year.

Moderna's stock surged 176.9% to $174.38 on August 19, 2026, lifting its market capitalization to roughly $69.6 billion and strengthening its acquisition currency. The company still guides to a year-end 2026 cash and investments balance of between $4.7 billion and $5.2 billion, plus an undrawn $0.9 billion credit facility, and the $950 million Arbutus/Genevant settlement is largely resolved. CEO Stéphane Bancel said Moderna is preparing for "the growth stage of a company coming ahead of us," though management has not signaled M&A intent. Potential targets include Immatics, with a $1.3 billion market cap and an existing collaboration; Arbutus Biopharma, at $957.6 million, whose acquisition would extinguish $1.3 billion in contingent LNP patent exposure; Intellia Therapeutics, at $1.9 billion, with Phase 3 lonvo-z showing an 87% reduction in hereditary angioedema attacks; and Editas Medicine, at $442.3 million, offering cardiometabolic pipeline access.