Be The Match BioTherapies® and Celyad Announce Collaboration to Advance Development of Allogeneic CAR-T Therapies

MINNEAPOLIS & MONT-SAINT GUIBERT, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Be The Match BioTherapies®, an organization offering solutions for companies developing and commercializing cell and gene therapies, and Celyad (Euronext Brussels and Paris, and Nasdaq: CYAD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of CAR-T cell therapies, today announced a collaboration to advance the clinical trial of Celyad’s non-gene edited allogeneic CAR-T therapies.

Through the collaboration, Be The Match BioTherapies will provide high-quality, consistent starting material from volunteer donors on the Be The Match Registry^® for the development and manufacturing of Celyad’s allogeneic CAR-T cell program.

“At Celyad, we are constantly pushing boundaries of innovation to develop our CAR-T cell therapies. We surround ourselves with partners who can help turn these ideas into product candidates for which logistical challenges are bound to rise,” said Jean-Pierre Latere, chief operating officer of Celyad. “Partnering with Be The Match BioTherapies gives us starting material that meets the needs of our clinical development programs of non-gene edited allogeneic CAR-T candidate therapies.”

As part of the National Marrow Donor Program^®/Be The Match^®, Be The Match BioTherapies will leverage extensive resources to support the trial, including access to more than 20 million donors through the Be The Match Registry^®, the world’s largest and most diverse registry of potential donors for hematopoietic stem cell transplant and cellular therapy starting material. Celyad will join Be The Match BioTherapies’ growing network of partners in the E.U., as Be The Match BioTherapies extends its cell therapy supply chain support to advance the rising number of cell and gene therapies worldwide.

“Celyad is among those leading the charge developing next-generation cellular therapies,” said Mark Flower, vice president, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, Be The Match BioTherapies. “The pioneering research at the company has allowed the field of allogeneic CAR-T therapies to take shape and become a reality. We look forward to supporting Celyad’s work to help bring transformative therapies to patients suffering from a broad range of cancers worldwide.”

About Be The Match BioTherapies

Be The Match BioTherapies is the only cell and gene therapy solutions provider with customizable services to support the end-to-end cell therapy supply chain. Backed by the industry-leading experience of the National Marrow Donor Program^®/Be The Match^®, and a research partnership with the CIBMTR^® (Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research^®), the organization designs solutions that advance the development of cell and gene therapies across the globe.

Be The Match BioTherapies is dedicated to accelerating patient access to life-saving cell and gene therapies by providing high-quality cellular source material from consented donors on the Be The Match Registry^®, the world’s largest and most diverse registry of potential blood stem cell donors. Through established relationships with apheresis centers and transplant centers worldwide, the organization efficiently qualifies, develops and manages expansive cell collection networks. Based on a history of compliance managing the chain of identity, Be The Match BioTherapies uses proven infrastructure consisting of logistics and regulatory compliance experts, personalized case managers and MatchSource^® software to successfully transport and deliver regulatory compliant life-saving therapies across the globe. Through the CIBMTR, Be The Match BioTherapies extends services beyond the cell therapy supply chain to include long-term follow-up tracking for the first two FDA-approved CAR-T therapies.

For more information, visit www.BeTheMatchBioTherapies.com or follow Be The Match BioTherapies on LinkedIn or Twitter at @BTMBioTherapies.

About Celyad

Celyad is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of specialized CAR-T cell-based product candidates and utilizes its expertise in cell engineering to target cancer. Celyad’s CAR-T cell platform has the potential to treat a broad range of solid and hematologic tumors. The company’s lead clinical candidate, CYAD-01, an autologous NKG2D-based CAR-T therapy, is currently being evaluated in several Phase 1 clinical trials to assess safety and clinical activity for the treatment of hematological malignancies, such as acute myeloid leukemia, and solid cancers, such as metastatic colorectal cancer. Celyad is also developing CYAD-101, an investigational, non-gene edited, allogeneic (donor derived) NKG2D-based CAR-T therapy, which is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 trial for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Celyad was founded in 2007 and is based in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium, and New York, NY. Celyad’s ordinary shares are listed on the Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris exchanges, and its American Depository Shares are listed on the Nasdaq Global Market, all under the ticker symbol CYAD.

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