Barclays ups bluebird rating to overweight, citing sickle cell opportunity
jittawit.21
Barclays has raised its rating on bluebird (NASDAQ:BLUE) to overweight to reflect the potential market opportunity for its sickle cell disease drug candidate, lovo-cel.
The investment bank said in a noted dated June 1 that it believes there is high probability that lovo-cel will get approved to treat the disease, along with a rival product being developed by CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) called exa-cel.
Barclays said that it sees the sickle cell disease market as being potentially large with supportive reimbursement from payors and a relatively large patient population. It sees slow initial adoption of the treatment, however, due to the lengthy treatment protocol and a lack of long-term safety data.
Barclay's also raised its price target for bluebird to $8 from $7. It maintained its equal weight rating for CRISPR, but raised its price target to $64 from $61.
More on bluebird bio:
bluebird bio files for $350M mixed shelf offering
bluebird bio surges 14% on Q1 results, sickle cell candidate
bluebird bio a new overweight at JP Morgan on sickle cell therapy