Bluebird Casts Wide Partnering Net To Keep Advancing Cell Therapy

Bluebird has been an active deal maker as it looks to add tools, targets and technological capabilities to its R&D engine. A pair of August TCR-focused deals, including the latest with Gritstone, continue that strategy.

Handshake of businessmen

With the exception of one small acquisition in 2014 to bring translational technology in house, bluebird bio Inc. has looked to collaborations to expand its capabilities in developing CAR-T and TCR therapies for what it hopes will be a wide range of solid and hematologic cancers.

“We’ve had a philosophy which [CEO] Nick [Leschly] refers to as the anti-pure play, where we’ve been willing to do collaborations around different technologies that we believe give us an advantage in the complex biological problems of cell and gene therapy and the targets you can engage with those technologies,” bluebird Chief Scientific Officer Philip Gregory said in an interview

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