Benzinga | Jul 28, 2021 08:17AM EDT

Bluebird Bio And Resilience Announce Strategic Alliance To Develop Next Generation Cell Therapies; Bluebird To Receive $110M Upfront Payment

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.