bluebird bio inks lentiviral vector patent deals with two European pharma majors

US clinical-stage biotech company bluebird bio (Nasdaq: BLUE) yesterday announced that it has entered into worldwide license agreements around its proprietary lentiviral vector platform with two leading European pharma companies.

Under the terms of the agreement with the UK’s GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), the latter will gain a non-exclusively license to certain bluebird patent rights related to lentiviral vector technology to develop and commercialize gene therapies for Wiscott-Aldrich syndrome and metachromatic leukodystrophy, two rare genetic diseases. Financial terms of the agreement include an undisclosed upfront payment to bluebird as well as potential development and regulatory milestone payments and low single digit royalties on net sales of covered products.

“bluebird bio’s work has been integral to the progress of lentiviral vector-based cell and gene therapy; over the past six years, we have taken the incredible potential of our lentiviral vector platform and successfully applied it to our own clinical gene therapy and oncology programs,” said Philip Gregory, chief scientific officer of bluebird bio