Nick Leschly, CEO of bluebird, speaks at the opening of Lonza Houston, the world’s largest dedicated cell and gene therapy facility, in Houston, Texas, U.S., April 10, 2018.
REUTERS/Daniel Kramer Acquire Licensing RightsSept 12 (Reuters) - 2seventy bio (TSVT.O) said on Tuesday it plans to lay off about 40% of its workforce to lower costs and focus on the biotech firm's cancer cell therapy Abecma, lifting the company's shares more than 8% in premarket trade.
The company added that CEO Nick Leschly will step down and transition to the role of chairman.
Leschly was earlier the CEO of bluebird bio (BLUE.O) for 11 years, but changed role after the gene therapy maker's oncology portfolio was spun off from it as 2seventy.
The company will now focus on another type of multiple myeloma patients, for which it expects approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in mid-December.
Persons:
Nick Leschly, Lonza, Daniel Kramer, Leschly, 2seventy, Abecma, Johnson, Bristol Myers, William Baird, Pratik Jain, Shounak Dasgupta, Maju Samuel
Organizations:
bluebird, REUTERS, Johnson, Legend Biotech, Bristol, Bristol Myers Squibb, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Thomson
Locations:
Lonza Houston, Houston , Texas, U.S, Abecma, Bengaluru