bluebird bio, Inc. is expecting gross proceeds of $120 million with its newly announced public offering of 20,000,000 shares.
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bluebird bio is expecting gross proceeds of $120 million with its newly announced public offering of 20,000,000 shares at a price of $6.00 per share before underwriting deductions.
Underwriters have also been offered a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,000,000 shares of bluebird’s common stock at the public offering price per share.
The offering will close on or around Jan. 23, 2023.
bluebird will use the net proceeds to support the commercialization and manufacturing of Zynteglo and Skysona. Additionally, the company will accelerate future commercialization activities of lovotibeglogene autotemcel (lovo-cel) for sickle cell disease if it is approved by the FDA.
Zynteglo was FDA approved in Aug. 2022, and the company entered 2023 with multiple patient cell collections scheduled. Skyonsa received accelerated approval from the FDA in Sep. 2022. The first patient was treated with Skysona this month.
Lovo-cel was released from an FDA partial clinical hold in Dec. 2022. The clinical hold resulted from a young patient developing persistent, non-transfusion-dependent anemia after treatment with the gene therapy.
bluebird anticipates submitting a Biologics License Application for lovo-cel in Q1 2023. It is also expecting to see the first revenues from Zynteglo this quarter.
If approved, lovo-cel will become the third FDA-approved gene therapy owned by bluebird. To date, only five FDA-approved gene therapies are on the market.
Working capital and other general corporate purposes are also expected to benefit from the company’s IPO. bluebird reported preliminary unaudited cash and cash equivalents and a marketable securities balance of approximately $182 million in Dec. 2022. Cash burn for 2023 is expected to be between $270-$300 million.
