Demand grows for cell therapy manufacturing

A 380 million deal between Bristol Myers Squibb and the start-up Cellares is a sign of growing demand for cell and gene therapy manufacturing services. Cellares raised 255 million in a series C funding round last year. BMS was one of the investors. Cellares will now produce chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for BMS. Under the agreement, BMS will reserve spots in Cellares' automated cell therapy manufacturing units, machines called Cell Shuttle. Cellares operates the units in San Francisco and New Jersey and plans to use the funds from the BMS deal to set up others, in the US, Europe, and Japan. "Cell Shuttle can simultaneously handle the cell therapy manufacturing process for 16 patients. It has a 16-times-higher throughput than any other technology in the market, " says Fabian Gerlinghaus, Cellares's CEO and cofounder. The cell and gene therapy space has rapidly evolved since the first gene therapy