Fresh out of the blue­bird bio on­col­o­gy split, Joanne Smith-Far­rell flies the coop to Be Bio and its B cell plat­form

Stung by set­backs and a stag­nant pipeline, blue­bird bio, the once-dar­ling of gene ther­a­py biotech, made the tough call to sev­er its rare dis­ease and on­col­o­gy units ear­li­er this year. One of the busi­ness leads on blue­bird’s on­col­o­gy side has now popped up at a new­ly launched B cell play­er — and she’s tak­ing her for­mer em­ploy­er’s “pi­o­neer­ing” ex­am­ple to heart.

Joanne Smith-Far­rell, for­mer­ly blue­bird’s chief op­er­at­ing of­fi­cer and head of the on­col­o­gy busi­ness unit, is now CEO at Be Bio­phar­ma, an ear­ly-stage biotech tar­get­ing en­gi­neered B cells for ther­a­peu­tic use. Smith-Far­rell is joined on the team by CSO Rick Mor­gan, an­oth­er blue­bird vet who was most re­cent­ly se­nior VP of im­muno­genet­ics at Ed­i­tas.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER