bluebird’s sluggish start with Lyfgenia hits shares hard

US gene therapy company bluebird bio (Nasdaq: BLUE) closed Wednesday’s trading 23% lower.

Investors are believed to have been reacting to the poor performance of Lyfgenia (lovotibeglogene autotemcel), as revealed during the company’s presentation of its second quarter financial results and latest operational progress.

Lyfgenia is bluebird’s sickle-cell disease (SCD) gene therapy, and is competing with Vertex Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: VRTX) rival CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel). Both were approved for SCD by the US Food and Drug Administration last December.