GentiBio Announces Collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to Pioneer Engineered Treg Therapies for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

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Aug 10, 2022, 07:00 ET

Collaboration combines GentiBio's best-in-class engineered regulatory T cell platform with Bristol Myers Squibb's leadership in cell therapy and immunology drug development

GentiBio to receive upfront cash payment, up to $1.9 billion in potential future development and commercial milestones, and royalties

BOSTON, Aug. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GentiBio, Inc., an engineered regulatory T cells (Tregs) company, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to develop new engineered Treg therapies to re-establish immune tolerance and repair tissue in patients living with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The collaboration brings together GentiBio's proprietary engineered Treg platform for generating scalable, stable, highly-selective, and durable Tregs with Bristol Myers Squibb's leadership in cell therapies and immunology.

During the multi-year collaboration, GentiBio will apply its modular engineered Treg platform and scalable manufacturing process to produce stable and disease-specific engineered Tregs against multiple targets. Bristol Myers Squibb will have the right to develop and advance up to three of the resulting programs into clinical trials.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with Bristol Myers Squibb, a global leader in cell therapy and immunology drug development, to bring critically-needed, disease-modifying therapies to IBD patients," said Adel Nada, M.D., M.S., co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of GentiBio. "Unlike existing therapies, Tregs have the unique potential to re-establish immune tolerance in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as IBD. This strategic collaboration reflects our shared commitment to creating innovative immunotherapies that are designed to be potent, durable, selective and have the potential to significantly shift the standard of care for patients with autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases."

IBD is characterized by debilitating and life-threatening chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Current therapies are largely focused on systemic anti-inflammatory agents and broad immunosuppression, which can have adverse effects outside the GI tract.

"Tregs have demonstrated the potential to suppress inflammation and autoimmune dysfunction in a tissue-restricted manner, thus avoiding widespread, and potentially harmful, immune suppression," said Robert Plenge, M.D., Ph.D., Bristol Myers Squibb Senior Vice President and Head, Immunology, Cardiovascular and Fibrosis Thematic Research Center and Head, Translational Medicine. "We are excited to collaborate with GentiBio as we explore creating potentially promising Tregs for patients suffering from IBD."

Under the terms of the agreement, Bristol Myers Squibb made an undisclosed upfront cash payment to GentiBio. GentiBio is eligible to receive development and sales milestone payments of up to $1.9 billion and royalties.

About GentiBio

GentiBio, Inc. is a biotherapeutics company co-founded by pioneers in Treg biology and immunology from Seattle Children's Research Institute, Benaroya Research Institute, and MIGAL Galilee Research Institute to develop engineered regulatory T cells programmed to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. GentiBio's Series A financing was led by Matrix Capital Management with participation by Avidity Partners, JDRF T1D Fund, seed investors OrbiMed, RA Capital Management, Novartis Venture Fund, and Seattle Children's Research Institute. GentiBio's autologous and allogeneic engineered Tregs platform integrates key technologies designed to successfully (re)establish immune tolerance and overcome major limitations in existing Treg therapeutics. GentiBio is at the forefront of leveraging a unique therapeutic modality that has the potential to address the fundamental cause of many diseases that result from overactivity and/or malfunctioning of the immune system. To learn more, visit www.gentibio.com.

SOURCE GentiBio, Inc.