Bristol Myers Squibb aims to generate around $1.5 billion in savings through 2025—a goal that it hopes to reach by lowering third-party expenditures, focusing only on key growth brands and cutting some 2,200 jobs by year-end.
Bristol Myers Squibb last week revealed that two development partners, Immatics and Century Therapeutics, have become the latest casualties of its sweeping cost-reduction program.
According to an SEC document filed Friday by German biotech Immatics, BMS has elected to back out of two cell therapy contracts “due to ongoing portfolio prioritization efforts,” effective March 12, 2025.
The partnerships in question date back to 2019, when Celgene—which BMS bought for $74 billion that same year—paid $75 million upfront for the right to option three T-cell receptor therapies. If the pharma had decided to license all three assets, the deal had the potential to balloon up to $1.5 billion for Immatics, plus tiered royalties.
According to Immatics’ SEC filing, BMS is now abandoning a June 2022 contract, under which the partners were supposed to work on allogeneic T-cell receptor and/or CAR-T therapies, as well as a May 2023 opt-in agreement related to the 2019 collaboration. The initial collaboration technically “remains ongoing,” according to the German company.
The contract terminations come after the pharma returned a T-cell receptor bispecific molecule to Immatics in September. BMS picked up the solid tumor asset called IMA401 in 2021 for $150 million upfront and the promise of up to $770 million in milestones.
Alongside Immatics, Philadelphia biotech Century Therapeutics on Thursday likewise reported in an SEC filing that BMS has axed its collaboration and license agreement “following an internal corporate portfolio prioritization process.” The termination will also take effect on March 12, 2025.
BMS first started working with Century in January 2022, when it made a $100 million upfront payment and a $50 million equity investment in the biotech. The contract focused on hematologic malignancies using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived engineered natural killer cell and/or gamma delta T-cell therapies.
Century could have received more than $3 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones across all four programs, plus tiered royalties on global net sales.
BMS is axing the Immatics and Century partnerships amid its ongoing “strategic productivity initiative,” first announced with its first-quarter 2024 report in April. The pharma is looking to save around $1.5 billion through 2025 and has put around 2,200 jobs on the chopping block by year-end and will reduce management layers.
The pharma at the time also said it will focus resources on key growth brands while also minimizing third-party expenditures.
