Bluebird caged by private equity
Bluebird Bio has been struggling for some time, but last week the gene therapy specialist threw in the towel and sold itself to private equity. A question is what its acquirers, Carlyle and SK Capital, hope to achieve from a business that has managed to get three products approved, but hasn’t converted these into significant sales. The deal is worth just $3 per share up front, but includes a contingent value right for $6.84 if Bluebird’s current portfolio sells $600m over a 12-month period before December 2027. This looks unlikely: in the first nine months of 2024 Bluebird’s products, which include Lyfgenia for sickle cell disease, made just $45m. The company hived off its oncology products to form 2seventy bio in January 2021; in September, Bluebird slashed its workforce in a bid to break even by the second half of 2025. The new-look Bluebird will be led by David Meek, who has had a chequered history at Mirati and Ipsen. Other sickle cell gene therapy and editing players have also had a tough time, including Editas, which recently dropped its ex vivo projects, and Crispr Therapeutics, whose approved Vertex-partnered therapy Casgevy made just $10m in 2024.
$600m sales target: Bluebird’s portfolio
| Product | Indication | US approval | Eligible patients* | List price/ patient | Patient starts to Sep 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyfgenia (lovotibeglogene autotemcel) | Sickle cell disease | Dec 2023 | 20,000 | $3.1m | 35 |
| Zynteglo (betibeglogene autotemcel) | Beta-thalassaemia | Aug 2022 | ~1,500 | $2.8m | 17 |
| Skysona (elivaldogene autotemcel) | Cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy | Sep 2022 | 40 | $3.0m | 5 |
Note: *as per Bluebird corporate presentation Aug 2024. Source: OncologyPipeline & company presentations.
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