In This Article:
-- Bristol Myers Squibb exercises an exclusive license option for ArsenalBio’s AB-4000 series programs --
-- ArsenalBio is eligible for additional milestone payments and royalties as the programs advance --
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Jan. 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arsenal Biosciences, Inc. (ArsenalBio), a clinical-stage programmable cell therapy company focused on engineering advanced CAR T cell therapies for solid tumors, today announced that Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) has exercised its exclusive license option for ArsenalBio’s AB-4000 series, the lead collaboration program generated under the multi-program agreement signed in December 2020. This milestone further strengthens the collaboration to advance next-generation T cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumors.
“This milestone underscores the confidence Bristol Myers Squibb has in ArsenalBio’s programmable T cell platform and our shared vision to develop transformative cell therapies for solid tumors,” said Ken Drazan, M.D., ArsenalBio’s Chairman and CEO. “Our collaboration provides increasing opportunities to address the multifactorial challenge of treating solid tumors through programmable cell engineering. We look forward to continuing our work with Bristol Myers Squibb and progressing the AB-4000 series toward clinical development to potentially benefit patients with solid tumors.”
ArsenalBio remains eligible for additional milestone payments as the programs and collaboration advance, as well as royalties on potential commercial sales.
ArsenalBio leveraged its proprietary synthetic biology toolkit to create the AB-4000 series. Each of the company’s synthetic biology tools utilizes a CRISPR-based approach called CITE (CRISPR Integration of Transgene via Electroporation), an ex vivo single insertion of a DNA cassette into the T cell at a proprietary site. ArsenalBio’s CITE cassettes include multiple features aimed at improving the T cell product’s ability to identify and eradicate solid tumors. These features include PrimeR logic gates designed to enable the T cell therapy to selectively target and kill only the tumor cells, leaving healthy cells intact and potentially limiting off-target effects, and shRNA cassettes, which address challenges presented by the solid tumor microenvironment.
About the ArsenalBio & Bristol Myers Squibb Collaboration
ArsenalBio formed a multi-year discovery collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb in December 2020 to advance next-generation T cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumors. Under the agreement, ArsenalBio will be responsible for discovering and building preclinical candidates against multiple targets, and Bristol Myers Squibb will have the option to obtain an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize preclinical candidates. Following exercise of the option, Bristol Myers Squibb will be solely responsible for developing and commercializing the licensed candidates. In January 2022, ArsenalBio announced that Bristol Myers Squibb exercised an option to initiate a new program, expanding its strategic collaboration with ArsenalBio. In July 2023, Bristol Myers Squibb entered a limited co-exclusive commercial license agreement for the use of ArsenalBio's proprietary TME control technology to potentially increase CAR T therapeutic effects in a limited number of Bristol Myers Squibb cell therapy products.