BioCentury
ARTICLE | Clinical News

bluebird gains on interim LentiGlobin data

November 7, 2014 3:27 AM UTC

bluebird bio Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) was up $2.69 to $41.70 after publication of abstracts of two studies of LentiGlobin BB305 gene therapy to treat beta thalassemia major via autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The abstracts were published in advance of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in December, and contain interim results for the U.S. Phase I/II Northstar (HGB-204) and the French Phase I/II HGB-205 trials. LentiGlobin BB305 comprises autologous CD34+ stem cells transduced ex vivo with a lentiviral vector encoding the human beta globin gene.

Northstar's first subject produced beta-A-T87Q-globin levels of 1.5%, 10.9% and 19.5% of total hemoglobin at one, two and three months after treatment. The company plans to provide follow-up data on the first patient and early data from at least two additional patients at the meeting. ...