Massive raise for BLUE today (as expected after being denied the PRV):
Bluebird in fundraising mode: A $150M public offering and a deal to get cash early from gene therapy sales | Endpoints News | December 19, 2023
Facing a financial void it had hoped to be filled by a priority review voucher, bluebird bio is tapping two different sources to bring in up to $250 million total.
The first is a straightforward, $150 million proposed public offering. The second is more unconventional: Bluebird disclosed Monday that it’s struck a deal with Alterna Capital Solutions, which bills itself as a “specialty finance company,” that will give it access to up to $100 million. In exchange, bluebird will sell Alterna some of its “trade accounts receivable” — meaning the money it’s due to receive from treatment centers that buy its gene therapies: Skysona, Zynteglo and the most recently approved Lyfgenia.
“The Agreement will enable the Company to collect cash earlier as part of this process,” bluebird wrote, compared to the current arrangement in which it invoices for the products once delivered. It will, however, only receive 90% of the full owed amount until Alterna gets the money from the payer; it will also be on the hook for fees.
The deal with Alterna will fund general working capital needs, while the proposed offering is designed to support commercialization and manufacturing for the trio of gene therapies.
Shares of bluebird $BLUE fell almost 15% to $2.6 in pre-market trading.
Leerink analysts wrote in a note that while the dilutive capital raise is “less appealing” than the priority review voucher sale bluebird originally expected, “we see this as the necessary action to alleviate near-term balance sheet pressure.” At its third-quarter earnings, bluebird had guided a cash runway into the second quarter of 2024.