Ropes & Gray Represents National Resilience $110 Million Alliance with Bluebird Bio to Develop Cell Therapies

In The News
October 4, 2021

Ropes & Gray advised National Resilience, Inc., a biopharmaceutical manufacturing specialist, in a strategic alliance with bluebird bio, Inc., to accelerate the research, development and delivery of cell therapies. The transaction was announced on July 28.

Under the terms of the agreement, National Resilience will pay bluebird $110 million upfront for a commercial manufacturing site in North Carolina with more than 100 employees Resilience will provide bluebird bio’s spin-off oncology cell therapy company 2seventy bio with access to viral vector supplies from the North Carolina plant. Resilience plans to keep all of bluebird's employees and expand the production facility. The partners plan to share expenses and revenues for cell therapies that come from the collaboration. 

The Ropes & Gray team was led by life sciences partner Marc Rubenstein and Amanda Austin (both of Boston) and included IP transactions associate Georgina Suzuki (Silicon Valley), life sciences associates Rajarshi Banerjee and Michael Connolly (both of Boston), real estate associates Katie Hyland and Meredith Sterritt (both of Boston) and Tom Wechsler (New York).