Bluebird Bio Shares Slide 41% on Black-Box Label, Higher Price for Sickle-Cell Treatment

By Ben Glickman

Shares of Bluebird bio fell after the company's sickle-cell disease treatment received a black-box warning and was announced at a higher price point than a competitor's treatment.

The stock was down 41% to $2.84 on Friday. Shares are down 60% this year.

The company's Lyfgenia was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of sickle-cell disease. The FDA also approved Casgevy, a sickle-cell treatment developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics using Crispr gene-modification technology.

The FDA said that Lyfgenia would include a black-box warning related to certain cases of blood cancer in patients treated with the drug.

Bluebird said the treatment would come with a $3.1 million price tag, compared with the $2.2 million price for Casgevy.

Evercore analysts said in a research note that the announcements gave Casgevy an advantage because of its lack of black-box label and lower price.

Write to Ben Glickman at ben.glickman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 08, 2023 15:56 ET (20:56 GMT)

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