Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
BMS paid Century Therapeutics $100M upfront plus a $50M equity stake against up to $3B for four iPSC-derived NK/T-cell programs, but terminated the collaboration without cause in December 2024, effective March 2025 — Century booked the remaining $109.2M as one-time revenue and pivoted CNTY-101 toward autoimmune disease.
Outcome grade pending — assessed 5 years post-close.
Full analysis, sources & comparables →Bristol Myers Squibb has signed a research deal worth up to $3 billion with Century Therapeutics, deepening its commitment to cell therapy as it works to…
Bristol Myers Squibb has struck a deal worth as much as $3 billion with Century Therapeutics, a Philadelphia biotech developing cell therapies derived from…
Bristol-Myers Squibb notified the Company on December 12, 2024 that it would be terminating the Collaboration Agreement in its entirety without cause after the…
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BMS and Century Therapeutics entered a strategic collaboration to develop and commercialize up to four iPSC-derived allogeneic NK and T-cell therapy programs in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Century received $100M upfront plus a $50M equity investment, with up to $3B in additional payments plus royalties. UPDATE (terminated): On December 12, 2024 BMS notified Century that it would terminate the collaboration in its entirety, without cause, following an internal portfolio-prioritization review; the termination became effective March 12, 2025. Century recognized the remaining $109.2M deferred transaction price as one-time collaboration revenue in Q1 2025, with no further collaboration revenue expected. Century has since refocused lead asset CNTY-101 from oncology toward autoimmune disease (CALiPSO-1).
187K US cases/yr · $12.8B Global cell therapy oncology market 2023
Hematologic malignancies — acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and Hodgkin lymphoma — collectively account for roughly 187,000 new U.S. cases and 60,000 deaths annually. Autologous CAR-T (Yescarta, Kymriah, Breyanzi, Tecartus, Carvykti, Abecma) has reset the treatment paradigm in B-cell lymphomas and multiple myeloma since 2017 with deep, durable responses but remains constrained by manufacturing variability, vein-to-vein time of 3-5 weeks, ICU-grade toxicity (CRS, ICANS), and access concentrated in academic centers. The strategic prize for allogeneic ('off-the-shelf') cell therapy is to compress vein-to-vein from weeks to days, expand to community oncology, and reduce cost — but to date, allogeneic donor T-cell platforms (Allogene, Atara, Precision BioSciences) have struggled with persistence and durability, and gene-edited iPSC-derived approaches like Century's are positioned as a third architectural path leveraging clonal master cell banks. BMS's existing CAR-T franchise (Breyanzi, Abecma) gives the deal direct strategic scaffolding.
The allogeneic cell therapy competitive landscape is split across architectural choices, with each subclass facing distinct delivery and durability challenges. Donor-derived TALEN-edited T cells are pursued by Allogene Therapeutics (ALLO-501A anti-CD19 in EXPAND, ALLO-715 anti-BCMA in TRAVERSE), with persistence and durability the central technical challenge given lymphodepletion-related immune rejection of donor cells. NK-cell allogeneic platforms include Affimed and Artiva Biotherapeutics (cord-blood NK), Nkarta (gene-edited peripheral blood NK), and Fate Therapeutics' iPSC-derived NK cells (FT516, FT596) prior to Fate's 2023 strategic restructure that wound down most clinical NK programs. Gene-edited iPSC platforms — the Century approach — are also pursued by Sana Biotechnology (SC291 hypoimmune-edited CD19), Editas Medicine (EDIT-301/reni-cel in sickle/beta-thal), and BlueRock Therapeutics (Bayer subsidiary). Autologous CAR-T incumbents Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel, Gilead/Kite), Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel, BMS), Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel, Novartis), Tecartus (brexucabtagene autoleucel, Gilead/Kite), Carvykti (ciltacabtagene autoleucel, J&J/Legend), and Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel, BMS/2seventy bio) define commercial benchmarks at $400-500K list price. BMS's bet on Century is positioned as upside optionality and platform hedge to its existing autologous franchise rather than direct cannibalization, with the option to advance off-the-shelf next-gen successors as the autologous CAR-T market matures.
BMS terminated the 2022 strategic collaboration in its entirety, without cause, following internal portfolio prioritization (notice 2024-12-12, effective 2025-03-12). Century recognized the remaining $109.2M as one-time collaboration revenue and refocused CNTY-101 on autoimmune disease.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Century Therapeutics Inc. (this deal) | 2022 | $3.1B | — |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Medarex Inc. | 2009 | $2.4B | 92 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Celgene Corporation | 2019 | $74.0B | 77 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / MyoKardia Inc. | 2020 | $13.1B | 76 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Karuna Therapeutics | 2023 | $14.0B | 76 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | 2011 | — | 76 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / SystImmune Inc. | 2023 | $8.4B | 71 |
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