Patrick Girondi Responds to New York Times on the Corrupt Expenses of Gene Therapy

The high prices are caused by corruption and out of control executive compensations. Even small start-up research companies without products are compensating their executives and boards millions. Bluebird Bio sued and settled out of court for compensating their board members $750,000 annually. These completely unrelated costs then find their way into research expenses. Pharma management, in an effort to collect on stock options, push inflated or outright false rhetoric which drives the company share price up. Bluebird Bio, again, is a poster child for this. The company traded at an $11.8 Billion dollar market cap a few years ago. In 2018 alone, Bluebird Bio raised $1.1 Billion at $185 and $162.5. Today the market cap is $650 million and the share price is $6. Investors are legally or illegally defrauded. As a result, funding for research dries up. The Orphan Drug Act of 1983 is abused by greedy white collar criminals. Many call for RICO to be used against these men and women who are responsible for more deaths than Attila the Hun. The corporate owned politicians have skewed the legal system to be another cost prohibitive protection vehicle, used to support and defend executive incompetence, illegal activity and avarice.I first hand know that Bluebird’s product costs less than $300,000 per patient to produce. Is $2.5 million profit per patient reasonable? Of course not. My company, San Rocco Therapeutics delivered the world’s first batch of gene therapy while Nick Leschly of Bluebird was having his famous ‘NY Times Apollo 13 moment.’ During his ‘moment,’ Mr. Leschly realized that he had bought the wrong horse. Court documents amply demonstrate that Mr. Leschly and Third Rock Ventures executives (the entity which bought the nag) continued conning unsuspecting investors and finally stole our product, much of which they are using today.Court documents prove that Mr. Leschly personally lied and silenced stock analysts who asked about the company situation. For his thievery, he was compensated over $100,000,000 personally. Third Rock Ventures, Mr. Leschly’s financial arm made 100’s of millions.

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