bluebird bio Opens State-of-the-Art Gene and Cell Therapy Manufacturing Facility

bluebird bio (NASDAQ:BLUE) has announced the opening of its first wholly owned manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, which will produce lentiviral vector for its investigational gene and cell therapies.

As quoted in the press release:

Gov. Roy Cooper, Secretary of Commerce Tony Copeland and local patient advocates will join chief bluebird Nick Leschly in a ribbon cutting ceremony at the 125,000-square-foot facility. Currently, bluebird employs approximately 50 scientists, engineers, manufacturing and operations personnel at the facility and is on track to grow to approximately 70 employees by the end of 2019.

“At bluebird bio, we view every aspect of our path to helping patients as both a privilege and a responsibility. This includes the expertise that we’ve poured into the construction and operation of our manufacturing facility, because it is a crucial step toward our mission of bringing a new generation of treatments to people living with severe genetic diseases and cancer,” said Leschly. “Our teams in North Carolina and across the globe are working to deliver treatments that will make a big difference for a lot of patients and families. This is what drives our ambition to bring four gene therapies forward in the next few years.”

“North Carolina is proud to bring bluebird bio’s cutting-edge work to Durham,” Governor Cooper said. “bluebird is developing treatments for devastating diseases that could change the course of medicine. And, with the Triangle’s highly-skilled workforce, it will continue to be a leader in the biotech field.”

Click here to read the full press release.