BMS terminates Cellares partnership after cell therapy platform fails to meet Breyanzi production needs, prompting layoffs

Bristol Myers Squibb has ended its collaboration with manufacturing specialist Cellares after the Cell Shuttle system could not satisfy the requirements for producing the approved CAR‑T therapy Breyanzi. The decision follows a comprehensive evaluation that concluded the automated platform was unsuitable for commercial manufacturing of the drug.

Cellares, which had secured a $380 million global capacity reservation and supply agreement with BMS in 2024, will lay off roughly 100 employees as a result of the contract loss. The company had planned to use its end‑to‑end, fully automated production technology for both clinical and commercial scales.

Breyanzi, a CD19‑directed CAR‑T therapy approved by the FDA in 2021, continues to be manufactured at BMS’s internal facilities. The termination does not affect the drug’s regulatory status but highlights challenges in scaling automated cell‑therapy production.

The split underscores the difficulty of integrating new manufacturing technologies into established, approved processes, and may influence future partnership strategies in the cell‑therapy sector.