Shares of biotech firm bluebird bio ought to double within the coming yr, because of its remedies for sickle cell illness, a genetic blood illness and a uncommon genetic mind situation, in response to Baird. The Wall Avenue agency initiated protection of the inventory on Monday with an outperform score and $10 worth goal, which suggests 104% upside from Monday’s shut. “Bluebird’s remedies clearly offered sufferers with transformative advantages of their medical research, and we consider that the present near-term consensus estimates are fairly conservative, particularly given the excessive worth tags of those remedies,” analyst Jack Allen wrote in a observe to purchasers. Its “transformative” lovo-cel gene remedy for sickle-cell illness seems poised to launch in late 2023 and may profit from the roughly 3,750 sufferers anticipated to hunt remedy for the illness, he stated. “At a worth of $1.5M per affected person, ~35% market share may end in peak lovo-cel gross sales of over $600M three years into the launch as a bolus of prevalent sufferers is handled (which compares favorably to 2026 consensus gross sales of ~$300M),” Allen stated. BLUE YTD mountain bluebird bio’s year-to-date efficiency In the meantime, its launch of Zynteglo, authorised in August 2022 for the remedy of transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia (TDT), also needs to beat analysts’ expectations, he stated. The corporate’s administration stated in January that 40 sufferers had initiated advantages verification for Zynteglo over the past three months of 2022. Analysts predict $70 million in gross sales for bluebird in 2023, which assumes 25 sufferers handled throughout each Zynteglo and Skysona, its remedy for childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD), Allen stated. “Additional, we observe that bluebird’s Zynteglo is prone to have a few one-year industrial head begin as in comparison with a competing product from CRISPR/Vertex, which may very well be essential because it pertains to having access to the prevalent affected person inhabitants earlier than these sufferers have been uncovered to a one-time cell remedy,” he stated. Lastly, Baird expects the usage of bluebird’s Skysona remedy for CALD, which was authorised in September 2022, to extend considerably within the coming years. The under-the-radar inventory, which has a market cap of over $500 million, is down about 29% this yr, as of Monday’s shut. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
