Searing Criticism on ARK’s Genomic Bets in FT. What do you think?

It seems like a good time to be a Cathy Wood critic.

I'm still on the fence about the Genomic Bets but have positions in VRTX and REGN (who have other steady businesses and are collaborating with CRISPR and NTLA).

Here's the article and an excerpt:

"Wood is also a cheerleader for this emerging field of medical science, telling CNBC in December that three listed companies in the space — Intellia, Crispr Therapeutics and Editas — represent a “trillion dollar plus opportunity” (although in this instance she was talking about their potential combined market value, which stands at roughly $12bn, rather than revenue).

The CNBC interview, too, contained statements that could charitably be described as not quite right. Wood said “we have already seen functional cures for three blood-related diseases” in the gene editing space. No companies have secured regulatory approval for such treatments, nor are they expected to any time soon. Some very early success in clinical trials does not a cure make.

Wood said Intellia had recently “announced a functional cure” for ATTR amyloidosis, which she described as an “exotic blood disease”. ATTR is a protein misfolding disorder, not a blood disease, and the company is nowhere near announcing a cure for it. The trial data she referred to were derived from just six patients. Intellia is more cautious in its pronouncements and will only say its drug “could potentially be the first curative treatment” for the illness.

Wood’s breathless promotion of this exciting but unproved technology to her huge fan base helped fuel a biotech bubble in 2020 that burst spectacularly last year. Her Ark Genomic Revolution fund rode the surge in valuations but is down almost 60 per cent from its peak in February 2021 and registered roughly $2.5bn of outflows over the same period. Her flagship Ark Innovation fund, which also holds some gene editing stocks, has fallen by a similar amount.”