BLUE - Bluebird bio forms alliance to develop next generation cell therapies; shares up 2%

National Resilience and bluebird bio (BLUE) announce a strategic alliance aimed to accelerate the early research, development and delivery of cell therapies.BLUE shares up 2% premarket at $26.44.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.In consideration, bluebird will receive $110M from Resilience.The 125,000-square foot facility, located in Durham, North Carolina, is currently manufacturing lentiviral vector, a critical component for cell and gene therapies.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 agreement to establish partner programs that will share expense and revenue for oncology products and in parallel establish a manufacturing R&D collaboration.

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Bluebird bio forms alliance to develop next generation cell therapies; shares up 2%