A sigh of relief for Sangamo

Given all the recent genome editing travails of Sangamo Therapeutics, shareholders likely spent Monday night breathing into a paper bag, dreading another dose of bad news after the company scheduled a surprise “clinical update” conference call for yesterday morning.

Then, dawn broke and the Sangamo update was… sorta positive. Exhale, everyone! Two hemophilia A patients treated with the highest dose of a Sangamo-invented gene therapy (since licensed to Pfizer) achieved normal levels of clotting factor and aren’t experiencing any bleeds. The data, while still preliminary and rather far behind, look competitive-ish with rival hemophilia A gene therapies from Biomarin and Roche. Separately Sangamo reported early but promising results in a single patient treated with a gene therapy for a severe form of beta-thalassemia.

Sangamo shares closed Tuesday up 29 percent, which means the stock has recouped its losses for the year.