bluebird's five-year pricing model for LentiGlobin could resonate with payers

A potential outcomes-based pricing scheme from bluebird bio Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) for its gene therapy could resonate with payers and proffer tentative solutions for navigating challenges around outcome tracking, patient portability and the Medicaid best price rule.

Under the model, presented Tuesday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, payers would make up to five equal payments for LentiGlobin BB305 across five years, with 80% of the one-time gene therapy's cost depending on treatment success. LentiGlobin BB305 is under EMA review to treat transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia; bluebird expects U.S. regulatory submissions this year.

"We are willing to put a majority of the price of our therapies at risk," bluebird spokesperson Stephanie Fagan told BioCentury. "If the treatments do not perform over the long term, we will forgo payment."

While bluebird has not yet disclosed what it...