Bluebird’s Fast Lyfgenia Launch Was A Year And A Half In The Making

Bluebird bio inc.’s sickle cell disease gene therapy Lyfgenia (lovotibeglogene autotemcel) won US Food and Drug Administration approval on the same day in December as Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated/CRISPR Therapeutics AG’s competing gene-editing medicine Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel), but as of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference a month later bluebird’s product is in the lead in terms of qualified treatment centers (QTCs) ready to administer the drug and the number of patient lives covered by payers that have agreed to reimburse Lyfgenia’s multimillion-dollar cost.