Bristol is next into in vivo Car-T

For a cool $1.5bn Bristol Myers Squibb has become the latest big pharma company to embrace in vivo Car-T therapy. Its acquisition of the private group Orbital Therapeutics, announced on Friday, follows Gilead's takeover of Interius, AbbVie's Capstan takeout and AstraZeneca's move on EsoBiotec, and comes at a time when 10 projects, including entrants from Legend, Starna and Grit, are in clinical trials. Among the M&A activity only Capstan attracted a higher price – $2.1bn – but at least that company had already started phase 1. This is more than can be said about Orbital, whose lead is only in IND-enabling studies. Meanwhile, the only human data so far on any in vivo Car-T therapy have come from case reports in China, so the amounts pledged by AbbVie and Bristol indicate a remarkable faith in an unproven technology. Like Capstan, Orbital is mainly focused on autoimmune disease, but it does talk of being "in a position to leverage in vivo Car-T therapies for oncology". The company raised $270m from series A investors back in April 2023, so Bristol's takeover represents an impressive payday for venture financiers.

In vivo Car-T acquisition activity

Source: OncologyPipeline.