Description of the business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Organization Consolidation And Presentation Of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Description of the business

1. Description of the business

bluebird bio, Inc. (the “Company” or “bluebird”) was incorporated in Delaware on April 16, 1992, and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Company researches, develops, manufactures and plans to commercialize gene therapies for severe genetic diseases and cancer. Since its inception, the Company has devoted substantially all of its resources to its research and development efforts relating to its product candidates, including activities to manufacture product candidates, conduct clinical studies of its product candidates, perform preclinical research to identify new product candidates and provide general and administrative support for these operations.

On June 30, 2014, the Company acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Precision Genome Engineering, Inc. (“Pregenen”) and in connection therewith, obtained the rights to Pregenen’s gene editing and cell signaling technology.

In July 2014, the Company sold 3,450,000 shares of common stock (inclusive of 450,000 shares of common stock sold by the Company pursuant to the full exercise of an overallotment option granted to the underwriters in connection with the offering) through an underwritten public offering at a price of $34.00 per share for aggregate net proceeds of $109.8 million. In December 2014, the Company sold 3,047,500 shares of common stock (inclusive of 397,500 shares of common stock sold by the Company pursuant to the full exercise of an overallotment option granted to the underwriters in connection with the offering) through an underwritten public offering at a price of $85.00 per share for aggregate net proceeds of $243.3 million.  In June 2015, the Company sold 2,941,176, shares of common stock through an underwritten public offering at a price of $170.00 per share for aggregate net proceeds of $477.2 million.  In December 2016, the Company sold 3,289,473 shares of common stock through an underwritten public offering at a price of $76.00 per share for aggregate net proceeds of $234.7 million.

As of December 31, 2016, the Company had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $884.8 million. Although the Company has incurred recurring losses and expects to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, the Company expects its cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities will be sufficient to fund current operations for at least the next twelve months.