Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and Cellares, a South San Francisco, California-based CDMO of cell therapies, have announced a worldwide capacity reservation and supply agreement for the manufacture of BMS’ CAR-T cell therapies in a deal worth up to $380 million in upfront and milestone payments.  

BMS will use Cellares’ proprietary Cell Shuttle platform, an end-to-end, fully automated cell-therapy manufacturing platform, for the clinical and commercial-scale manufacturing of select CAR-T cell therapies. 

As part of the agreement, Cellares will optimize, automate, and tech-transfer select BMS CAR-T cell therapies onto its manufacturing platform. Cellares will dedicate multiple systems for BMS’ exclusive use. The systems will be deployed in Cellares’ factories in the US, the European Union, and Japan. 

This agreement expands upon the existing collaborations between BMS and Cellares. In August 2023, BMS participated in a financing round that launched the CDMO. That same month, BMS joined Cellares’ technology adoption partnership program to evaluate the Cell Shuttle’s automated manufacturing capabilities. 

Source: Bristol Myers Squibb