Bluebird To Cut Workforce By About 30%

(RTTNews) - bluebird bio, Inc. (BLUE), a biotech firm, said on Tuesday that it decided to trim its workforce by about 30% as part of the restructuring that the company expects to deliver savings of up to $160 million.

In December last year the company had said FDA placed its clinical program for lovotibeglogene autotemcel gene therapy for sickle cell disease on partial clinical hold.

The company now said it plans a potential submission of a biologics license application (BLA) for lovotibeglogene autotemcel (lovo-cel) gene therapy for sickle cell disease in the first quarter of 2023.

The initiative is anticipated to cash burn in 2022 to less than $340 million, with a 35 to 40 percent reduction in operating costs anticipated by the year-end 2022, which is also expected to be reflected in the company's operating budget for 2023.

bluebird said the restructuring is expected to extend its cash runway into the first half of 2023.