CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 16, 2014--
bluebird bio (Nasdaq: BLUE), a clinical-stage biotechnology company
focused on transforming the lives of patients with severe genetic and
orphan diseases using gene therapy, today announced that Mark Vachon has
joined the company’s board of directors.
“We are delighted to welcome Mr. Vachon to our board,” said Nick
Leschly, chief bluebird. “Mark’s extensive global experience across
healthcare in both general management and financial leadership positions
will be invaluable to bluebird as we look to grow our business and
potentially introduce innovative gene therapies to treat blood
disorders, adrenoleukodystrophy and cancers.”
Over his career, Mr. Vachon has assumed a variety of leadership
positions across the General Electric (NYSE: GE) organization over 30
years and was a Company Officer since 1999 and a member of the Corporate
Executive Council. Mr. Vachon was President and CEO of GE HealthcareAmericas from 2009 to 2010 and prior to that he was President and CEO of
Global Diagnostic Imaging, GE Healthcare between 2006 and 2009. Between
2003 and 2006, Mr. Vachon was Executive Vice President and CFO at GE
Healthcare.
“I am pleased and excited to be joining bluebird bio’s Board,” said Mark
Vachon. “In my career to date, I have seen the dramatic changes in
healthcare and the introduction of new and innovative approaches that
have transformed the lives of patients. I hope to help bluebird as it
grows and as it starts to consider the global deployment of its gene
therapy product platform.”
About bluebird bio, Inc.
bluebird bio is a clinical-stage
company committed to developing potentially transformative gene
therapies for severe genetic and orphan diseases. bluebird bio has two
clinical-stage programs in development. The most advanced product
candidate, Lenti-D, is in a recently-initiated phase 2/3 study, the
Starbeam Study, for the treatment of childhood cerebral
adrenoleukodystrophy (CCALD), a rare, hereditary neurological disorder
affecting young boys. The next most advanced product candidate,
LentiGlobin, is currently in two phase 1/2 studies, one in the US (the
Northstar Study) and one in France (HGB-205), for the treatment of
beta-thalassemia major. The phase 1/2 HGB-205 study also allows
enrollment of patient(s) with sickle cell disease, and bluebird bio is
planning a separate U.S. sickle cell disease trial (HGB-206).
bluebird bio also has an early-stage chimeric antigen receptor-modified
T cell (CAR-T) program for oncology in collaboration with Celgene
Corporation.
bluebird bio has operations in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Seattle,
Washington and Paris, France. For more information, please visit www.bluebirdbio.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains
“forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding
the advancement of, and anticipated milestones related to the Company’s
product candidates, clinical studies and gene therapy product platform.
Any forward-looking statements are based on management’s current
expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and
adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking
statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited
to, the risk of cessation or delay of any of the ongoing or planned
clinical studies and/or our development of our product candidates, the
risk of a delay in the enrollment of patients in the Company’s clinical
studies, the risk that the results of previously conducted studies
involving similar product candidates will not be repeated or observed in
ongoing or future studies involving current product candidates, the risk
that our collaboration with Celgene will not continue or will not be
successful, and the risk that any one or more of our product candidates
will not be successfully developed and commercialized. For a discussion
of other risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of
which could cause our actual results to differ from those contained in
the forward-looking statements, see the section entitled “Risk Factors”
in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as well as discussions of
potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in our
subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All
information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and
bluebird bio undertakes no duty to update this information unless
required by law.
Availability of other information about bluebird bio
Investors
and others should note that we communicate with our investors and the
public using our company website (www.bluebirdbio.com),
our investor relations website (http://www.bluebirdbio.com/investor-splash.html),
including but not limited to investor presentations and FAQs, Securities
and Exchange Commission filings, press releases, public conference calls
and webcasts. You can also connect with us on Twitter @bluebirdbio, LinkedIn
or our YouTube
channel. The information that we post on these channels and websites
could be deemed to be material information. As a result, we encourage
investors, the media, and others interested in bluebird bio to review
the information that we post on these channels, including our investor
relations website, on a regular basis. This list of channels may be
updated from time to time on our investor relations website and may
include other social media channels than the ones described above. The
contents of our website or these channels, or any other website that may
be accessed from our website or these channels, shall not be deemed
incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933.
Source: bluebird bio
Investor Relations:
bluebird bio, Inc.
Richard E. T.
Smith, Ph.D., 339-499-9382
or
Media Contact:
Pure
Communications, Inc.
Dan Budwick, 973-271-6085
