Summary
Two major deals in the CAR-T space have raised excitement and at the forefront comes bluebird bio with not only CAR-T tech but gene therapy tech as well.
Bluebird bio’s lentiviral vector technology has made bb2121 into a solid clinical candidate that has seen remarkable results in an early stage study in patients with multiple myeloma.
Big pharma has made it clear that it wants a piece of the pie of the CAR-T space, which is why bluebird bio is likely next on the acquisition block.
Bluebird bio has proven that its gene therapy tech works well, which acts as a back up tech in case the CAR-T program doesn’t pan out.
There are a few CAR-T biotechs left, but bluebird bio provides the most value for what it has achieved to date in terms of safety and efficacy.
Things have been heating up intensely in the CAR-T space. There have been an enormous amount of deals recently, and this leads me to believe that bluebird bio (BLUE) is possibly the next CAR-T biotech to be acquired. That’s because it has already proven its technology to work in an early stage CAR-T study. It has also proven that its gene therapy technology works in rare diseases. These diseases are: adrenoleukodystrophy, Beta Thalassemia, and sickle cell disease. These targeted indications are treated by using Bluebird’s gene therapy technology. The beauty of Bluebird’s technology is that it can be applied to CAR-T therapy as well. How is that done This is accomplished by using gene therapy to genetically modify a patient’s own T-cells to target and destroy cancer cells. Why I believe bluebird bio is next in line to potentially be acquired is because it carries an added pipeline as noted above. Should another pharmaceutical company acquire bluebird bio, not only will it get the three indications for the gene therapy program, but it will also obtain the early stage CAR-T pipeline as well.
Taking a look at the most recent deal where Celgene (CELG) paid $9 billion to acquire Juno Therapeutics (JUNO), it is observed that Celgene only got Juno’s CAR-T pipeline. Which don’t get me wrong is really good, but with an acquisition of bluebird bio a pharmaceutical company will get much more. For starters, the gene therapy program has been very successful with multiple indications. For example, bluebird bio has already posted positive phase 2/3 interim data in patients with cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD), which is a fatal brain disease in children.
