Bristol Myers Squibb said Friday that it would buy Cambridge startup Orbital Therapeutics for $1.5 billion in cash, the latest move in a brewing race to develop safer and more scalable cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune disorders.
Orbital is developing so-called in vivo CAR-T treatments. Today’s approved CAR-T therapies are effective at treating certain blood cancers but are complicated to produce and taxing for patients: Their immune cells have to be collected, sent to a facility to be reengineered to target cancer, and then sent back for infusion. Large doses of chemotherapy are given along the way.
In vivo treatments would be given with a simple IV infusion, no costly manufacturing or high-dose chemotherapy involved.
This is the third notable buyout of an in vivo CAR-T company this year. In June, AbbVie said it would purchase Capstan Therapeutics for up to $2.1 billion. In August, Gilead bought Interius for $300 million in cash.
All the efforts remain early stage. Orbital has yet to start a clinical trial.
Its lead candidate uses lipid nanoparticles — the same tiny soap bubbles used in mRNA COVID vaccines — to deliver RNA into immune cells in the body to turn them into CAR-Ts.
The company was initially launched in 2022, with funding from three blue-chip venture capital firms and a collaboration with gene editing startup Beam Therapeutics, to unleash “the full potential of RNA medicines to treat human disease.” It raised $270 million the next year.
Bristol Myers Squibb already markets two CAR-T therapies, Abecma for multiple myeloma and Breyanzi for lymphoma. But its sales have trailed other CAR-T companies.
In a press release, the company said it was focused on the technology’s potential in autoimmune disorders. In the last few years, first-generation CAR-T treatments have shown powerful results in these conditions, but many patients may be unwilling to endure brutal chemotherapy. An IV treatment could be different.
“In vivo CAR T represents a novel treatment approach that could redefine how we treat autoimmune diseases,” Robert Plenge, Bristol Myers’ chief research officer, said in a statement.
