Bluebird Bio Inc. shares were down about 24%, to $3.28, in Wednesday midday trading after the company posted a steep revenue decline in its fourth quarter.
The Somerville, Mass.-based gene-therapy company reported total sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022, of $62,000, compared with $1.6 million during the same period one year earlier, and a profit of $32.2 million, compared with a loss of $155.1 million one year earlier.
Analysts had expected revenue to come in at $1 million and for the company to post a loss of $63 million.
The sale of a $102 million priority-review voucher helped the company offset the decline in sales. The company says it believes it will report commercial revenue during the first quarter of 2023 after reporting no product revenue for the fourth quarter.
Bluebird anticipates a commercial launch of Lovo-Cel in early 2024, a scaling of Zynteglo to 40-50 centers by the end of 2023, and is on track for 5-10 patient starts for Skysona in 2023.
The company ended 2022 with cash and cash equivalents of $227 million.
Shares are down about 52% since the start of the year and 36% over the last 12 months.