NEW YORK – Editas Medicine on Wednesday announced a two-year extension of a collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to research and develop cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Editas had signed an initial research agreement in 2015 to develop cancer CAR T-cell and high-affinity T-cell receptor therapies with Juno Therapeutics, which was subsequently acquired by Celgene in 2018. Then, in 2019, when BMS bought Celgene, BMS amended the partnership with Editas to expand the collaboration beyond oncology. At the time, Editas received $70 million upfront from BMS and was eligible for future milestone payments and royalties, but the agreement would have ended this year.
The new agreement extends BMS and Editas' partnership through 2026 and includes two options to extend the collaboration by another year, potentially into 2028. The companies didn't disclose financial details of the extended partnership.
The companies are currently focusing on preclinical development of autologous and allogeneic alpha-beta T-cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. As part of the agreement, BMS has rights to opt in to use genome-editing tools developed by Editas to develop gene-edited alpha-beta T-cell therapies. Editas may receive milestone payments for investigational therapies that BMS develops and commercializes using those tools. Editas is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on net sales of any approved products created through the collaboration.
To date, Princeton, New Jersey-based BMS has opted into 13 programs across 11 gene targets. Two programs with undisclosed targets are currently in investigational new drug-enabling studies.