Nick Leschly at Endpoints JPM20 (Jeff Rumans)

Blue­bird spins it­self in­to two com­pa­nies, sev­er­ing gene ther­a­py and can­cer units

Blue­bird bio, once one of biotech’s flashiest com­pa­nies, is tak­ing a sweep­ing step as it looks to right the ship af­ter a se­ries of high-pro­file set­backs: split­ting the com­pa­ny in two.

The Cam­bridge-based com­pa­ny will split it­self in­to a unit fo­cused on can­cer and a unit fo­cused on rare dis­ease, sev­er­ing the cell ther­a­py and gene ther­a­py units that the biotech rode to promi­nence. CEO Nick Leschly ex­plained the move as a prac­ti­cal one, re­flect­ing the dif­fer­ent kinds of ex­per­tise in the dis­ease ar­eas.

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