Immatics, Bristol Myers Squibb Expand Strategic Alliance To Develop TCR-T, CAR-T Programs

(RTTNews) - German biopharmaceutical company Immatics N.V. (IMTX) and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) announced Thursday that they have expanded their strategic alliance to pursue the development of multiple allogeneic off-the-shelf TCR-T and/or CAR-T programs.

Under this collaboration, Bristol Myers Squibb and Immatics will develop two programs owned by Bristol Myers Squibb and both companies have an option to develop up to four additional programs each.

The programs will utilize Immatics' proprietary gamma delta T cell-derived, allogeneic Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) platform, called ACTallo, and a suite of next-generation technologies developed by Bristol Myers Squibb.

Under the terms of this agreement, Immatics will receive an upfront payment of $60 million as well as up to $700 million per Bristol Myers Squibb program through development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and tiered royalty payments of up to low double-digit percentages on net product sales.

Immatics will be responsible for preclinical development of the initial two Bristol Myers Squibb-owned programs and will receive additional payment for certain activities that Immatics could perform at Bristol Myers Squibb's request.

Meanwhile, Bristol Myers Squibb will assume responsibility for clinical development and commercialization activities of all Bristol Myers Squibb-owned programs thereafter.

In addition, Bristol Myers Squibb and Immatics will expand their 2019 collaboration agreement focused on autologous T cell receptor-based therapy (TCR-T), with the inclusion of one additional TCR target discovered by Immatics. As part of this expansion, Immatics will receive an upfront payment of $20 million and be eligible for milestone payments and royalties.