Investing in cutting-edge companies is a bit riskier than investing in tried-and-tested players, but breaking new ground can sometimes offer outsized rewards. On that note, Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT) and Intellia Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NTLA) are both exciting gene-editing businesses that aspire to treat or cure human illnesses using some of the most advanced biotechnologies that exist at the moment.

But there's a clear winner of this matchup when it comes to which is the more attractive opportunity to invest in. Let's dive in.

With its shares down by 87% in the last three years, Editas is definitely a battered biotech, but it isn't anywhere close to going out of business. Its only clinical-stage programs are a pair of gene therapies for transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT) and sickle cell disease (SCD), both of which are in early-stage trials, and both of which could be curative. It faces two main risks: Failing to prove that its therapies are safe and effective in its clinical trials, and failing to gain a market share if it eventually succeeds in getting its medicines approved.

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Source Fool.com