Mar 27,2024
London: Gene therapy maker bluebird bio said on Tuesday it plans to revise its financial statements for 2022 and the first three quarters of last year due to accounting errors related to some contract manufacturing agreements.
The company said it has identified “material weakness in its internal control over financial reporting”, and will take time till April 16 to file its 2023 annual report that was expected this month.
The restatement will have no impact on its revenue or current cash position, said a spokesperson for the company, which has contract manufacturing agreements with Thermo Fisher Scientific and Lonza, among others, according to bluebird’s annual report released last year.
Shares of bluebird were down 17 per cent at $1.12 in morning trading.
The company said it incorrectly separated the lease and non-lease components of some of the contracts in its reporting, resulting in an estimated understatement of lease assets and liabilities between $100 million and $200 million in 2022.
For the first three quarters of 2022 and 2023, the understatement was between $30 million and $125 million each.
The restatements come at a time when bluebird is focused on commercialising its three gene therapies, including its recently approved sickle cell disease treatment, Lyfgenia, which is expected to generate revenue from the third quarter.
Source: Healthworld