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Bluebird creature Will sell itself to private equity firms Carlyle and SK Capital for about $30 million, The company says Friday marks the end of Bluebird’s fall from one of the most buzzing biotech companies to the end of a family, a cusp of running out of money.
If Bluebird’s Gene Therapies reaches $600 million in any 12-month sales by the end of 2027, Bluebird’s shareholders will receive a $3.44 per share of $3. Bluebirds closed at $7.04 on Thursday. They fell 40% on Friday after the company announced the sale.
For more than three decades, Bluebirds have been at the forefront of creating one-time treatments that promise to cure hereditary diseases. At one point, Bluebird’s market capitalization hovered at $9 billion due to the idea that investors thought the company could succeed with its gene therapy. It fell $41 million The company faced several scientific setbacks, splitting its cancer job into another company and falling into financial despair.
The turning point was in 2018, when Bluebird marked a cancer in patients receiving gene therapy for sickle cell disease. Bluebird concluded that its treatment did not cause this, but the revelation began a series of questions about its DNA-changing treatment.
Bluebird also faces overturned by European payers after pricing its blood disease gene therapy beta thalassemia, known as Zynteglo, for $1.8 million per patient. The company withdrew the treatment from Europe in 2021, just two years later. Bluebird said it will focus on the U.S., where it is preparing to approve Zynteglo for Beta thalassyia, Lyfgenia for sickle cell disease, and another treatment for a rare encephalopathy called rare brain disease, It is called brain adrenal adrenal epinephrine disease.
All three gene therapies have been approved in recent years, but none of them can alleviate Bluebird’s financial difficulties. The company spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The release of Bluebird’s cancer therapy to the new company also eliminated a significant revenue stream.
In its final update in November, Bluebird said its cash will fund the company’s operations in the first quarter of this year. Sales mark a huge reversal of Bluebird’s past performances. The upfront price of about $30 million is a small percentage of the company’s shares, the former CEO of Bluebirds, Nick Leschly, from selling a small part of the company’s shares.
This is inconsistent with the transformative results most patients see in company treatment. This reporter has already been with those Desperate opportunity Accepting Zynteglo, as well as a 10-year-old girl at the time, she was lucky to be the first person in the United States to receive treatment after treatment.
Now, the entire field is facing a commitment to whether companies can turn a promise of one-time treatment into rare diseases. vertexCompeting gene therapy for sickle cell disease, Casgevy’s launch is also slow. Pfizer Announced on Thursday Stop selling gene therapy For hemophilia approved only a year ago, the demand is weak.
Bluebird’s treatment can still change many lives. They just aren’t enough to change the fate of the company.
