Resilience Acquires Bluebird Bio’s Manufacturing Facility to Develop Next Gen Cell Therapies

National Resilience Inc. (Resilience)—a first-of-its-kind manufacturing and technology company, was launched in November 2020, securing $800 million in a Series B financing led by ARCH Venture Partners and 8VC.

Operating with an aim to revolutionize biopharma manufacturing and build the most advanced ecosystem, it has continuously acquired several manufacturing units. That includes a former Genzyme manufacturing plant from Sanofi in Boston and a biologics manufacturing company, Ology Bio, among others. Recently, the company successfully acquired another high-profile pharmaceutical facility in North America.

US$110 Million Acquisition

On July 28th, Resilience announced a strategic partnership with Cambridge, MA-based gene therapy company, bluebird bio. As part of the alliance, Resilience will acquire bluebird’s Research Triangle (bRT) manufacturing facility located in Durham, North Carolina, for $110 million and jointly develop the next generation of cell therapies.

“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, CEO of Resilience.

The 125,000-square-foot facility currently manufacturers lentiviral vector (LVV), a critical component of cell and gene therapies. The facility also includes drug substance and drug product production suites, quality control testing laboratories, and warehousing space, as well as additional footprints for future expansion.

“…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,” Singhvi added.

Plans for a Long Lasting Alliance

Resilience plans to retain all current employees on-site, more than 100 highly skilled technical staff, and administrators. Furthermore, pursuing its mission to build a digitally connected, end-to-end biomanufacturing ecosystem, it will invest in advancing new technologies and expand the workforce.

Resilience will continue to support the vector manufacturing needs for both bluebird bio and its subsidiary, 2seventy bio, which is expected to launch by the end of the year. Both companies are also on the verge of initiating partner programs that will share expense and revenue for successfully commercialized oncology products and, in parallel, establish a next-generation manufacturing R&D collaboration.

Besides, the duo will also 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.

bluebird’s Future Plans

“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 bio.

In recent years, bluebird bio has mainly focused on developing gene therapies for blood disorders. In February, it temporarily suspended the Phase 1/2 (HGB-206) and Phase 3 (HGB-210) studies of its LentiGlobin gene therapy for sickle cell disease (bb1111) after trial participants developed acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). However, after discovering that the serious adverse reactions were not related to its gene therapy, the FDA allowed trial resumptions in June.

Meanwhile, Skysona (Lenti-D), a gene therapy intended to treat cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD), a rare neurodegenerative disease, was approved by the European Commission in mid-June 2021 and is on its way towards a BLA application with the FDA.

In January, bluebird announced its intention to separate its severe genetic disease and oncology businesses into differentiated and independent publicly traded companies. While it will continue to concentrate on developing the former, 2seventy will take over its oncology businesses.

“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,” Leschly added.

Author

Rajaneesh K. Gopinath