Tomislav Marinovic
Engineer, AI Value-Chain Research
Prime Medicine and Beam Therapeutics show yellow flags, if not red, in their shared founder and IP dispute, even though prime editing is one of this century's most critical technologies. The same academic scientist helped found both yet stayed at his university rather than run either full time. Now the two companies are in arbitration over IP and contractual rights. Something may be missing here, and hopefully is, but these are not green flags. x.comÂ
Prime Medicine will trade on hype and fumes until it shows positive clinical data, likely not before sometime in 2027, because it is still a Phase 1 company. Its technology reads as almost too good to be true, but genomics has many promising players and it is hard to know now who will win, which favors a broad genomics ETF over a single name. x.comÂ
Prime Medicine looks unusually inexpensive relative to its platform at a roughly $570 million market cap. Bristol Myers Squibb's deal includes over $3.5 billion of potential milestones, six times that value, plus royalties, and gives Prime a route into cancer and immunology; their value depends on success, timing and costs. Prime editing can make all 12 single-letter DNA substitutions and insert or delete DNA, and its first CGD patients reached 69% and 83% functional neutrophils by day 30. x.comÂ
AI labs will need advanced gene editing to address many of the diseases they pursue, making Prime Medicine's strategic importance hard to overstate as they expand into biology. Cystic fibrosis is a sizable indication; demonstrating the technique works there could open larger indications. x.com x.com x.comÂ
Prime Medicine's stock should start to move once more pipeline data comes in, building on amazing technology and early results in a rare immune disease showing quick fixes. More programs are coming, and its cash runway lasts until 2027. x.comÂ
AI biotech names such as Tempus AI, Recursion, Ginkgo Bioworks and Prime Medicine could become the new home for money rotating out of AI and semiconductor leaders, with Moderna and Merck's positive phase 3 melanoma results for their mRNA neoantigen therapy a possible catalyst. Sentiment toward AI in healthcare should be far warmer than toward job-displacing AI, since everyone faces disease, and could top the semis trade. Indices could chop or fall while these biotechs outperform. x.com x.com … Show more
