Bluebird Bio reaction to lovo-cel BLA delay ‘overdone,’ says Raymond James

Raymond James analyst Dane Leone makes no change to the firm’s Outperform rating and $10 price target on Bluebird Bio (BLUE) shares after the company reported Q4 results and announced a delay for the lovo-cel BLA submission that had been expected in Q1. The concern is that the BLA submission delay presents launch timing risk given the competitive dynamics with exa-cel in SCD from Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), but the firm thinks that the lovo-cel CMC issues "seem straight forward" and does not think the MDS case presents new issues with approvability, calling the current negative stock reaction "overdone."