Commitments and contingencies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Lease commitments

2seventy bio leases certain office and laboratory space. Refer to Note 7, Leases, for further information on the terms of these lease agreements.

Contingent consideration related to business combinations

On June 30, 2014, bluebird bio acquired Pregenen. All assets and liabilities related to the Pregenen acquisition, including the resulting goodwill and contingent consideration, were attributed to the Company in connection with the separation. The Company may be required to make up to an additional $99.9 million in remaining future contingent cash payments to the former equityholders of Pregenen upon the achievement of certain commercial milestones related to the Pregenen technology. In accordance with accounting guidance for business combinations, contingent consideration liabilities are required to be recognized on the consolidated balance sheets at fair value. Estimating the fair value of contingent consideration requires the use of significant assumptions primarily relating to probabilities of successful achievement of certain clinical and commercial milestones, the expected timing in which these milestones will be achieved and discount rates. The use of different assumptions could result in materially different estimates of fair value.

Other funding commitments

Certain agreements that were assigned by bluebird bio to the Company in connection with the separation relate principally to licensed technology and may require future payments relating to milestones that may be met in subsequent periods or royalties on future sales of specified products. These agreements include the collaboration agreements entered into with BMS, Regeneron, Novo Nordisk and the agreements entered into with Resilience, all of which were assigned to the Company in connection with the separation. Additionally, to the extent an agreement relating to licensed technology was not attributed to the Company, bluebird bio entered into a sublicense with the Company, which may require future milestone and/or royalty payments. Please refer to Note 10, Collaborative arrangements and strategic partnerships, for further information on the BMS, Regeneron, and Resilience agreements and Note 11, Royalty and other revenue, for further information on license agreements.

Based on the Company's development plans as of December 31, 2023, the Company may be obligated to make future development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and royalty payments on future sales of specified products. Payments under these agreements generally become due and payable upon achievement of such milestones or sales. When the achievement of these milestones or sales has not occurred, such contingencies are not recorded in the Company’s financial statements. As further discussed in Note 10, Collaborative arrangements and strategic partnerships, BMS assumed responsibility for amounts due to licensors as a result of any future ex-U.S. sales of Abecma.

In July 2021, bluebird bio and National Resilience, Inc. (“Resilience”) announced a strategic manufacturing collaboration aimed to accelerate the early research, development, and delivery of cell therapies. Agreements related to the collaboration were executed in September 2021. As part of the agreement, Resilience acquired bluebird bio's North Carolina manufacturing facility and retained all staff employed at the site. Concurrent with the sale of the manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, bluebird bio entered into certain ancillary agreements, including two manufacturing agreements and a license agreement (the “Resilience License Agreement”), among others (together referred to as the “Ancillary Agreements”). One of the manufacturing agreements supports ongoing manufacturing for lentiviral vector for development candidates (the “Development Manufacturing Supply Agreement”). The other manufacturing agreement for the future manufacturing of lentiviral vector for the commercial product marketed in collaboration with BMS, Abecma (the “Commercial Supply Agreement”) was assigned by the Company to BMS on June 23, 2023. Certain rights and obligations under the Ancillary Agreements were assigned by bluebird bio to 2seventy bio on November 4, 2021 upon the separation of 2seventy bio from bluebird bio. The assignments under the asset purchase agreement and the Development Manufacturing Supply Agreement commit the Company to reimburse Resilience for an amount equal to 50% of the net operating losses of and relating to the manufacturing facility’s business incurred during the twelve-month period ending on the first anniversary of the closing of the transaction, as calculated in accordance with the asset purchase agreement, subject to a cap of $15.0 million. During the second quarter of 2023, the Company paid a total of $14.2 million to Resilience for its share of net operating losses. The disposition of the net assets of the manufacturing facility previously assigned to 2seventy bio was reflected as a transfer to bluebird bio via net parent investment as a result of bluebird bio’s sale of such facility in the Company’s 2021 annual report on Form 10-K. As a result of the separation, the Company’s net parent investment balance was reclassified to additional paid-in capital. 2seventy bio is not a party to the sale of the manufacturing facility and, therefore, did not recognize any gain or loss arising from the transaction.

The Company has various manufacturing development and license agreements to support clinical and commercial product needs. The following table presents non-cancelable contractual obligations arising from these arrangements:


Years ended December 31,	Purchase commitment
2024	$	6,671
2025 and thereafter	—
Total purchase commitments	$	6,671

Litigation

From time to time, the Company expects to be party to various claims and complaints arising in the ordinary course of business. However, the Company is not currently a party to any litigation or legal proceedings that, in the opinion of its management, are probable of having a material adverse effect on its business. The Company enters into standard indemnification agreements in the ordinary course of business. Pursuant to these agreements, the Company indemnifies, holds harmless, and agrees to reimburse the indemnified party for losses suffered or incurred by the indemnified party, generally the Company’s business partners. In addition, pursuant to the separation agreement, the Company indemnifies, holds harmless, and agrees to reimburse bluebird bio for its indemnification obligations with respect to the Company’s business partners, relating to the Company’s business or arising out of the Company’s activities, in the past or to be conducted in the future. The term of these indemnification agreements is generally perpetual any time after execution of the agreement. The maximum potential amount of future payments the Company could be required to make under these indemnification agreements is unlimited. Management does not believe that any ultimate liability resulting from any of these claims will have a material adverse effect on its results of operations, financial position, or liquidity. However, management cannot give any assurance regarding the ultimate outcome of any claims, and their resolution could be material to operating results for any particular period.

The Company indemnifies each of its directors and officers for certain events or occurrences, subject to certain limits, while the officer or director is or was serving at the Company’s request in such capacity, as permitted under Delaware law and in accordance with its certificate of incorporation and by-laws. The term of the indemnification period will last as long as a director or officer may be subject to any proceeding arising out of acts or omissions of such director or officer in such capacity. The maximum amount of potential future indemnification is unlimited; however, the Company holds director and officer liability insurance.