This Week In Sickle Cell News August 9th to the 16th

By Sean Marshall
An article surfaced on Seeking Alpha's website outlining that a genetic blood therapy company called Global Blood is preparing for an IPO, this could mean big things for the sickle cell world.

In the business world an IPO is an initial public offering. A type of way for a major company to allow the public to buy and sell their stocks. This is often done to raise capital quickly on order to invest it further in something private investors would consider risky. There are of course set backs and weaknesses to IPO one of the largest that scars most companies away is the requirement to disclose certain information that could prove helpful to competitors

However seeing as that Global Blood is one of the few firms specializing in blood disease therapies as well as its “lead candidate is focused on treating patients with sickle cell disease.” One of the companies more interesting promises was about one of there new leads. “This lead candidate is a one-of-a-kind therapy that is aimed at reducing and treating red blood cell sickling rather than the symptoms.”

It was further quoted that “this treatment could potentially be revolutionary to the sickle cell disease market. The biotech is eyeing a $480 million market valuation, in order to raise proceeds to support clinical trials. Biotech investors may be particularly excited about this one because of the market potential, but there is considerable risk.”

The real big news to take from this is that if the public does react positively it shows that there is major interest in a cure for sickle cell disease. Or at the very least there is interest in making a profit of a cure for sickle ell disease. Either way progress will hopefully be made.

The original article can be found here:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3424666-global-blood-therapeutics-unique-sickle-cell-therapy-could-have-big-payoff
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