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Biography Carlyle and SK Capital will be sold to private capital companies for around $ 30 million, the company said on Friday, which marked the end of the fall of the blue bird of one of the most expectant biotechnology firms to one that was at the cusp of running out of money.
Bluebird shareholders will receive $ 3 per share with the possibility of obtaining another $ 6.84 per share if Bluebird's genetic therapies reach $ 600 million in sales in any period of 12 months at the end of 2027. Bluebird shares closed at $ 7.04 Thursday. They fell 40% on Friday after the company announced the sale.
For more than thirty years, Bluebird has been at the forefront of the creation of unique treatments that promised to cure genetic diseases. At one time, Bluebird market capitalization was around $ 9 billion when investors turned to the idea that the company could find success with their genetic therapies. Has fallen under $ 41 million After the company faced several scientific setbacks, separated its cancer work in another company and fell into financial despair.
The turning point arrived in 2018, when Bluebird marked that a patient who received his gene therapy due to falciform cell disease developed cancer. Bluebird concluded that its treatment did not cause the condition, but the revelation began a series of questions that surround the security of their treatments that alter the DNA.
Bluebird also faced European payers after setting the price of their gene therapy for Beta Talasemia blood disorder, called Zynteglo, with $ 1.8 million per patient. The company withdrew Europe treatment in 2021, only two years after it was approved there. Bluebird said that it would focus on the USA., Where I was preparing for the approval of Zynteglo for beta talasmia, lyfgeny for falciform cell disease, as well as another Skysona therapy for a rare brain brain disease called cerebral adrenoleukodystrophic.
The three genetic therapies were approved in recent years, but none of them has been able to relieve Bluebird's financial problems. The company had been spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The download of Bluebird cancer treatments in the new company 2 Seventy Bio also eliminated an important source of income.
In the last update in November, Bluebird said that its cash would finance the company's operations in the first quarter of this year. The sale marks a marked investment of the last Bluebird action. The initial price of approximately $ 30 million is a fraction of the former executive director of $ 80 million, Nick Leschly, made when selling the company's shares during its time there.
And disagree with the transformative results that most patients see with the company's treatments. This reporter has spoken with patients who were desperate for the opportunity to receive Zyenglo, as well as a 10 -year -old girl who felt fortunate to become the first person in the United States to receive treatment after he was approved.
The entire field faces difficult questions at this time about whether companies can translate the promise of unique treatments for rare diseases in viable businesses. VertexCompetitive gene therapy for falciform cell disease, Casgevy has seen an equally slow release. Pfizer On Thursday he announced that he would stop selling gene therapy for hemophilia that was approved only one year ago, citing a weak demand.
Bluebird treatments could still change many lives. They simply were not enough to change the fate of the company.
