Aug 25 (Reuters) – Bristol Myers Squibb has ended its partnership with cell therapy startup Cellares to expand the manufacturing of its personalized blood cancer therapy, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday.
Bristol Myers determined that Cellares’ cell therapy manufacturing platform, Cell Shuttle, could not meet the requirements to make its CAR-T therapy, Breyanzi, at commercial scale, the spokesperson said. Cellares did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The development underscores the challenges of manufacturing CAR-T therapies, a personalized form of cancer treatment that has transformed care for some blood cancer patients but remains difficult and expensive to produce.
Breyanzi, first approved by the U.S. FDA in 2021, is used to treat lymphoma and other blood cancers. It generated $1.36 billion in sales in 2025.
Endpoints News first reported the development earlier in the day.
Cellares CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus had disclosed the loss of a “large pharmaceutical customer” in a LinkedIn post over the weekend, adding that this will force the company to “resize” its workforce.
The start up did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the layoffs.
The companies signed a deal in 2024 worth up to $380 million under which Bristol Myers reserved manufacturing capacity across the U.S., the European Union and Japan for CAR-T therapies.
Bristol Myers’ decision only applies to Breyanzi and its approved manufacturing process.
CAR-T therapies work by removing a patient’s immune cells, reprogramming them in a lab to fight cancer, and infusing them back into the body.
(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
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