What Bluebird Bio Gets Wrong In Pricing For Its $1.8 Million Drug

Here’s how Bluebird Bio rationalized Zynteglo’s price. It will be paid $355,000 when a beta thalassemia patient receives the infusion of the gene therapy. The remaining payments will be made to Bluebird Bio in four equal installments over the next four years as long as the patient is still free of getting blood transfusions, thus adding up to $1.8 million. Actually, Bluebird Bio feels that it is selling its gene therapy at a 15% discount in that it believes that Zynteglo has an “intrinsic” value of $2.1 million when one considers that it is delivering 22 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for the most successful treatment patients.