bluebird bio raises $101 million in IPO

Gene therapy company bluebird bio Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) raised $101 million in an IPO through the sale of a bumped-up number of shares above its proposed price range. The company sold 5.9 million shares at $17, which values the company at $387.8 million. Earlier this month, bluebird had amended its IPO and said it planned to sell 5 million shares at $14-$16. The shares are slated to start trading on Wednesday. JPMorgan; BofA Merrill Lynch; Cowen; Canaccord; and Wedbush are underwriters.

Late this year, bluebird plans to start Phase II/III testing of Lenti-D to treat childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). Lenti-D is a hematopoietic stem cell therapy with a lentiviral vector encoding the wild-type gene that encodes the ALD protein. ...