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Biotech Bluebird Bio ( BLUE ) was trading up sharply Wednesday after the company said it started testing its cell therapy in blood cancer, triggering a $10 million payment from partner Celgene ( CELG ). And another Celgene partner, Juno Therapeutics, also was up Wednesday, after getting an upgrade. Last June, Bluebird and Celgene agreed to a three-year collaboration to develop Bluebird’s chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapies targeting the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) to help the body fight cancer. On Wednesday, Bluebird said the first patient of its phase-one study of its candidate bb2121 in multiple myeloma had been treated, yielding a $10 million option-to-exercise payment from Celgene. Bluebird stock was up more than 7% in afternoon trading on the stock market today , near 54. “While Celgene’s opt-in decision doesn’t come entirely unexpected, we view the decision positively since it further validates Bluebird’s CAR-T effort,” wrote Leerink analyst Michael Schmidt in a research note. “While several other groups have been working on myeloma CAR-T programs, anti-BCMA CAR-T data from Bluebird’s collaborator at the NCI (National Cancer Institute) . . . has been most promising to date in our view.” Celgene’s lead drug Revlimid is currently one of the most popular treatments for multiple myeloma, but since it’s due to lose patent protection in a few years the company has been looking at newer technologies. Meanwhile, another Celgene partner in CAR-T, Juno Therapeutics ( JUNO ), got an upgrade from Guggenheim on Wednesday based on both valuation and a reassessment of its spending habits. “Juno has been steadily amassing an arsenal of tools to increase efficacy and reduce toxicity of T cell therapies,” wrote analyst Tony Butler as he upgraded the stock to buy from neutral and set the price target at 41. “It is a pay-me-now-or-pay-me-later scenario. . . . While not all of these investments may pay out in the future, it is likely that one or two will, and they could provide Juno the opportunity to surpass the competition or, at the very least, to stay at the vanguard of T cell therapies.” Juno stock was up more than 6.7% in afternoon trading, near 34. Scalper1 News
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