Bristol Myers Squibb will be using Cellares’ Cell Shuttles, an automated production system capable of producing multiple cell therapies simultaneously, to potentially improve turnaround time to support the pharma’s CAR T cell therapies.
Bristol Myers Squibb has signed a $380 million worldwide capacity reservation and supply deal with manufacturer Cellares to bolster the pharma’s CAR-T cell therapy production, the companies announced Monday.
Cellares said it plans to automate and tech transfer “select” CAR T cell therapies from BMS to its manufacturing platform, the Cell Shuttle. The agreement aims to expand the manufacturing capacity and potentially improve the turnaround time for BMS’ CAR T therapies. In return, Cellares will get upfront and milestone payments that total up to $380 million.
According to Cellares, its Cell Shuttle is an end-to-end, fully automated cell therapy manufacturing platform for the clinical and commercial-scale production of CAR T cell therapies. A single-cell shuttle system uses robotics and other automated systems to produce 16 batches of therapy.
Under the deal, Cellares said it would dedicate several Cell Shuttles for BMS’ exclusive use, which would be deployed in Cellares’s facilities in the U.S., Japan and the European Union. The manufacturer currently has two factories in the U.S., a 118,000-square-foot facility in Bridgewater, N.J., as well as a 57,000-square-foot location in South San Francisco.
“The agreement with Cellares is our latest step forward in support of our comprehensive to in support of our comprehensive strategy to unlock the full potential of CAR T therapy to deliver transformative treatments to as many patients as possible, as quickly as possible,” Lynelle Hoch, president BMS’ cell therapy organization, said in a statement. “Our collaboration with Cellares strengthens our existing internal manufacturing capabilities for CAR T cell therapies by giving us access to the first end-to-end fully automated cell therapy manufacturing platform, to help ensure we meet the high demand for these differentiated treatments, now and in the future.”
Monday’s collaboration is the latest between the two companies. BMS contributed to Cellares’ $255 million Series C in August 2023 and the pharma last year also signed on to Cellares’s technology adoption partnership program, which aims to evaluate the Cell Shuttle’s automated production capabilities.
“This agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb is aligned with our strategy of establishing a global network of high-throughput, automated Smart Factories to meet the growing and worldwide demand for cell therapies,” Cellares CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus said in a statement. “We look forward to demonstrating how our innovative technology’s emphasis on standardization will accelerate commercial-scale manufacturing and worldwide deployment.”
Cellares has formed other manufacturing deals through its technology adoption partnership program, working with Cabaletta Bio to validate the manufacturing of its early-stage CD19 CAR T and separately with Lyell Immunopharma.
BMS’ deal with Cellares comes as the FDA approved earlier this month BMS and 2seventy Bio’s CAR T treatment Abecma to be used earlier in treating multiple myeloma.
Tyler Patchen is a staff writer at BioSpace. You can reach him at tyler.patchen@biospace.com. Follow him on LinkedIn.
