Press Release
September 17, 2018

bluebird bio and Gritstone Oncology Enter Strategic Collaboration to Develop Novel Cancer Cell Therapies

The Life Sciences team advised bluebird bio on its strategic collaboration with Gritstone Oncology to research, develop and commercialize products for the treatment of cancer using cell therapy. Under the terms of the agreement, Gritstone Oncology will receive $20 million in an upfront payment and an additional $10 million in the form of a Series C preferred equity investment. In addition, Gritstone Oncology is eligible for significant development, regulatory and commercial milestones and tiered royalties.  

Through the collaboration, Gritstone Oncology will leverage its proprietary EDGE™ artificial intelligence platform to analyze specific tumor types to identify tumor-specific targets and natural T-cell receptors (TCRs) directed to those targets for use in bluebird bio’s established cell therapy platforms. 

bluebird bio has built a pipeline with broad potential application in severe genetic diseases and cancer with its lentiviral-based gene therapies, T cell immunotherapy expertise and gene editing capabilities.

The Goodwin team was led by partners Christopher Denn and Gregg Katz.

For additional details on the collaboration, please read the press release.