Bluebird Bio Spins Off Oncology Business, Announces Move to Somerville

Bluebird Bio has signed a long-term lease to establish a biotech hub at Assembly Row in Somerville with a 61,000 square foot facility to be located at 455 Grand Union Blvd.  The company expects to move approximately 425 employees to its new headquarters in spring of 2022 where the workspace will be designed to enable a distributed work model. Bluebird estimates the move will result in more than $120 million in cumulative cost savings over the next six years. The company will maintain laboratory space and operations at 60 Binney St. in Cambridge through 2023.

“Over the past 18 months, we have transformed the way we work and live as we’ve navigated through the COVID-19 pandemic and re-established ourselves as a company focused on pursuing curative gene therapies for severe genetic disease,” said Jason Cole, chief business officer, Bluebird Bio. “Savings from our real estate footprint support our focus on increased fiscal discipline and investment in our core programs and pipeline…”

The announcement comes one day after Bluebird completed the spin-off of its oncology programs and portfolio into 2seventy bio, an independent, publicly-traded company. Bluebird will continue its work focused on severe genetic disease, with the anticipated launch of first-in-class therapies for patients with sickle cell disease, β-thalassemia and cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy.

In September 2021, Bluebird submitted a biologics licensing application to the FDA for betibeglogene autotemcel (beti-cel) for patients with β-thalassemia who require regular red blood cell transfusions. The BLA filing for elivaldogene autotemcel (eli-cel, Lenti-D) for patients with cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD) is on track for the end of 2021. (Source: Bluebird Bio Website, 04-05 November, 2021)