Drug developer Bluebird Bio expects more than $211 million from stock offering

Bluebird Bio is capitalizing on a recent stock price spike with a public offering of more shares that it expects to raise over $211 million, most of which will go toward clinical research.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts, company said Tuesday that it will price its offering of about 2.7 million shares at $85 each before underwriting discounts. The stock closed at $86.20 on Monday.

It also has given the banks managing the offering an option to buy an additional 397,500 shares.

The company's stock soared more than 70 percent earlier this month after Bluebird said it saw promise in early research into a treatment for patients with a form of beta-thalassemia, a serious genetic blood condition.

That drug, labeled LentiGlobin BB305, also aims to treat severe sickle cell disease. The company also is developing a treatment for childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare neurological disorder affecting young boys.

Bluebird Bio Inc. held an initial public offering of its stock last year and has no products on the market.

Its shares slipped nearly 2 percent, or $1.52, to $84.68 Tuesday after markets opened. Broader indexes were down less than 1 percent.