Why Shares of Bluebird Bio Jumped 15.7% on Tuesday
Shares of Bluebird Bio (NASDAQ: BLUE) jumped 15.7% on Tuesday. The stock closed at $5.93 on Monday, then opened at $5.81 on Tuesday before rising to a high of $6.97. The stock fell a little at the close to $6.86. It is still down 31% this year and has a 52-week low of $2.87 and a 52-week high of $17.85.
It was a bit of a delayed reaction that drove up the stock. The clinical-stage gene-editing company announced, after the market closed on Friday, that it had received accelerated approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its gene therapy Skysona (elivaldogene autotemcel) to slow the progression of early, active cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD) in boys ages 4 to 17. CALD is a rare genetic neurological disease that affects only 1 in 20,000 males, according to the Child Neurology Foundation. Females are generally only carriers of the condition. While the potential patient base for the therapy is small, Bluebird has said it plans to charge up to $3 million for each treatment, which would make it the most expensive therapy in the world.
Interestingly, after opening at $6.63 on Monday ($0.29 higher than its close on Friday), the stock then fell, closing at $5.93, perhaps because investors saw the opportunity to get rid of their shares on positive news. On Tuesday, however, it rallied after analysts upgraded their positions with the stock.
Source Fool.com
