About a month after reporting it’s had a tough time starting enough patients on its treatments, bluebird bio announced it will lay off about 25% of its employees, over half of whom work in R&D.
As part of a restructuring aimed at reducing cash operating expenses by 20%, bluebird bio will cut about 25% of its workforce, the company announced Sept. 24. The Somerville, Massachusetts–based biotech had 375 full-time employees—including 221 in R&D—as of June 30, according to a Sept. 13 SEC filing.
Bluebird expects to mostly complete its restructuring, which includes the layoffs, in the first quarter of next year, according to a Sept. 24 SEC filing.
The news comes a little over a month after a second-quarter 2024 earnings report showed that despite pioneering gene therapies for several diseases, the biotech has had difficulty starting enough patients on its treatments. As a result of that challenge, bluebird had to renegotiate its standing loan agreement with Hercules Capital. The company now has an extended deadline for the patient starts that will allow it to unlock $25 million in additional funding.
In its Sept. 24 announcement, bluebird noted that as part of its restructuring, it will “further sharpen” its focus on the commercial launches of sickle cell disease treatment Lyfgenia, cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy gene therapy Skysona and beta-thalassemia therapy Zynteglo. Year to date, the company said, 41 patients have started treatment across that portfolio, up from the 27 reported in mid-August.
Bluebird is hoping for 40 patient starts in the fourth quarter, according to the announcement. It’s an important milestone given the biotech noted its cash-flow break-even target for the second half of 2025 assumes scaling to about 40 drug product deliveries per quarter in addition to realizing the 20% reduction in cash operating expenses and securing additional cash resources to extend its cash runway.
As a result of the restructuring, the company estimates it will incur aggregate charges of approximately $3.7 million in cash expenditures for severance and employee termination-related costs, according to the Sept. 24 SEC filing. Bluebird will pay out those costs over multiple weeks through the rest of this year.
