Resilience to acquire bluebird’s clinical and
commercial suspension lentiviral vector manufacturing facility in
North Carolina, retaining all current employees at the site
Alliance designed to foster best in class cell
therapy product and manufacturing innovation through risk-sharing
and royalty-based model
bluebird to receive $110M upfront, preferred
LVV manufacturing access and significantly reduce operational
expenses over coming years
National Resilience, Inc. (Resilience) and bluebird
bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUE), today announced a strategic alliance
aimed to accelerate the early research, development and delivery of
cell therapies. As part of the agreement, Resilience will acquire
bluebird’s Research Triangle (bRT) manufacturing facility located
in North Carolina and retain all of the more than 100 highly
skilled technical staff and administrators currently employed at
the site. Resilience will continue to support vector supply for
both bluebird bio and 2seventy bio, bluebird’s spin-off oncology
cell therapy company that is expected to launch by the end of 2021.
The two companies are also finalizing a definitive agreement to
establish partner programs that will share expense and revenue for
successful commercialized oncology products and in parallel
establish a next-generation manufacturing R&D
collaboration.
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The 125,000-square foot facility, located in Durham, North
Carolina, is currently manufacturing lentiviral vector (LVV), a
critical component for cell and gene therapies. The facility
includes drug substance and drug product production suites, quality
control testing laboratories and warehousing space as well as
additional footprint for future expansion. Resilience will continue
to invest in the advancement of new technologies and expand the
workforce as part of the company’s mission to build a digitally
connected, end-to-end biomanufacturing ecosystem. Upon completion
of the acquisition, the Resilience network will include 10 sites in
North America with more than 1 million square feet of
manufacturing, development, and support space.
In consideration for the acquisition of the bRT facility upon
the closing of the transaction, bluebird will receive $110 million
from Resilience. bluebird and 2seventy will continue to benefit
from flexible and guaranteed access to LVV manufacturing for their
emerging pipeline programs and the facility will be the primary
source of suspension LVV.
The two companies plan to collaborate on the next phase of
2seventy’s pipeline, each applying their respective innovations in
cell therapy development and manufacturing through a risk-sharing
model.
“This alliance supports our vision of innovative product
participation business models and bluebird’s demonstrated
leadership and expertise in the field of gene and cell therapy
makes them an ideal partner for this next phase of growth,” said
Rahul Singhvi, Sc.D, Chief Executive Officer of Resilience.
“Further, the acquisition of the bRT facility gives us an important
strategic presence in the Research Triangle region with one of the
largest and most technically advanced facilities focused
exclusively on cell and gene therapy manufacturing. We look forward
to working closely with bluebird as they continue to advance
important therapies for patients.”
“Our mission of developing the next generation of cell therapies
requires a thoughtful balance of innovation from both a scientific,
medical and regulatory perspective as well as manufacturing
perspective. We believe Resilience is an optimal partner to help us
achieve this mission as well as the ideal successor for the next
phase of the bRT facility’s growth,” said Nick Leschly, chief
bluebird. “As we continue to pivot toward the planned separation of
bluebird and 2seventy, this strategic partnership allows us to
share risk, streamline our business operations, provide additional
capital and importantly ensures uninterrupted access to vector
supply as we develop additional transformative treatments.”
The closing of the transaction will be subject to the expiration
of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust
Improvements Act, the negotiation of certain definitive agreements
and other customary closing conditions.
About Resilience Resilience (National Resilience, Inc.),
a company building the world’s most advanced biopharmaceutical
manufacturing ecosystem, is a manufacturing and technology company
dedicated to broadening access to complex medicines and protecting
biopharmaceutical supply chains against disruption. Founded in
2020, the company is building a sustainable network of high-tech,
end-to-end manufacturing solutions to ensure the medicines of today
and tomorrow can be made quickly, safely, and at scale. Resilience
offers the highest quality and regulatory capabilities, and
flexible and adaptive facilities to serve partners of all sizes. By
continuously advancing the science of biopharmaceutical
manufacturing and development, Resilience frees partners to focus
on the discoveries that improve patients’ lives.
For more information, visit www.Resilience.com.
About bluebird bio, Inc. bluebird bio is pioneering gene
therapy with purpose. From our Cambridge, Mass., headquarters,
we’re developing gene and cell therapies for severe genetic
diseases and cancer, with the goal that people facing potentially
fatal conditions with limited treatment options can live their
lives fully. Beyond our labs, we’re working to positively disrupt
the healthcare system to create access, transparency, and education
so that gene therapy can become available to all those who can
benefit.
bluebird bio is a human company powered by human stories. We’re
putting our care and expertise to work across a spectrum of
disorders including cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, sickle cell
disease, β-thalassemia and multiple myeloma using three gene
therapy technologies: gene addition, cell therapy and
(megaTAL-enabled) gene editing.
bluebird bio has additional nests in Seattle, Wash.; Durham,
N.C.; and Zug, Switzerland. For more information, visit
bluebirdbio.com.
Follow bluebird bio on social media: @bluebirdbio,
LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
bluebird bio Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements This press release contains “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. All statements that are not statements of
historical facts are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements include statements as
to the parties’ intention for Resilience to continue to deliver
vector supply for bluebird bio and 2seventy bio, including
suspension LVV; the intention and plans of Resilience to continue
to invest in manufacturing capacity and technologies following the
completion of the transaction; and the parties’ intention to
collaborate on future pipeline projects. Such forward-looking
statements are based on historical performance and current
expectations and projections about bluebird’s and 2seventy bio’s
future financial results, goals, plans and objectives and involve
inherent risks, assumptions and uncertainties, including internal
or external factors that could delay, divert or change any of them
in the next several years, that are difficult to predict, may be
beyond our control and could cause our future financial results,
goals, plans and objectives to differ materially from those
expressed in, or implied by, the statements. No forward-looking
statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements in this
press release should be evaluated together with the many risks and
uncertainties that affect bluebird bio’s business, which include
the risk that bluebird’s and 2seventy’s collaboration with
Resilience will not continue or be successful; the risk that our
product candidates will not be successfully developed or
commercialized; the risks related to our reliance on a third party
for our suspension vector needs. For a discussion of other risks
and uncertainties, any of which could cause our actual results to
differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see
the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form
10-K, as updated by our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q,
Current Reports on Form 8-K and other filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements included in
this document are made only as of the date of this document and
except as otherwise required by applicable law, bluebird bio
undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210728005511/en/
Contact for Resilience: Ryan Flinn Head of Communications
Ryan.flinn@Resilience.com 510-207-7616 Contacts for bluebird
bio: Investors: Elizabeth Pingpank, 617-914-8736
epingpank@bluebirdbio.com or Media: Jenn Snyder, 617-448-0281
jsnyder@bluebirdbio.com
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