Cellares will provide proof-of-concept manufacturing for a second Bristol Myers Squibb CAR-T cell therapy as part of an expanded agreement between the companies.

The Oct. 11 announcement comes weeks after Cellares first indicated that Bristol Myers Squibb had entered the Cellares Technology Adoption Partnership (TAP) program — a fast and low-risk opportunity for cell therapy developers to adopt the company’s automated manufacturing technology for products in their pipeline.

Under the expanded terms, Cellares will optimize, automate and tech-transfer the additional CAR-T cell therapy process onto its automated manufacturing platform, the Cell Shuttle.

Bristol Myers Squibb is using the program to evaluate the Cell Shuttle as an automated manufacturing process and produce comparability data to confirm whether it is a viable, cost-efficient, and scalable manufacturing solution for cell therapies.

Demand is growing for the TAP program, which allows for manual processes to be automated and tech-transferred onto the Cell Shuttle platform in only six months. Participating cell therapy developers can also tech-transfer their cell therapy processes onto a Cell Shuttle at any stage.

Cellares, the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) dedicated to clinical and industrial-scale cell therapy manufacturing, says that thanks to automation, standardization and software-defined manufacturing (SDM), every tech transfer thereafter is instantaneous to any Cell Shuttle in any other IDMO Smart Factory anywhere in the world.

Wednesday’s announcement builds on the San Francisco-based company’s August news, which NJBIZ reported on, that it secured $255 million in Series C funding to launch the world’s first-commercial-scale IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater. Cellares’ 118,000-square-foot facility will seamlessly integrate advanced robotics purpose-built technology and interconnected software – with Bristol Myers Squibb, which has its U.S. corporate headquarters in Lawrenceville, as one of the investors.

“We’re excited to expand our relationship with Bristol Myers Squibb even further beyond the Series C investment and the first TAP program for cell therapies,” said Cellares CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus in a press release. “The optimization and automation of this additional CAR-T cell therapy process through our TAP program expands on our first partnership with BMS and helps our mission to accelerate access to life-saving cell therapies for patients.”

In case you missed it:

Bristol Myers Squibb has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire San Diego-based Mirati Therapeutics Inc. for up to $5.8 billion. Click here to learn more.