Bristol Myers Squibb is moving to take over its longtime cell therapy partner 2seventy bio and the CAR-T cell therapy they developed and commercialized together, Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel). The buyout comes at a time when the market for CAR-Ts in multiple myeloma has shifted, with Abecma in a weaker position than its competitor, but the deal could strengthen BMS’s position in the space.
Cambridge, MA-based 2seventy said 10 March that it entered a merger agreement with BMS, whereby the New York-based drugmaker will acquire it for about $286m, or $102m net of estimated cash, representing an estimated 88% premium over the 7 March closing share price of $2.66. The companies expect the deal to close in the second quarter of 2025. BMS told Scrip that 2seventy will continue to operate separately and independently until the deal closes, after which it will become a wholly owned subsidiary.
Key Takeaways
- 2seventy bio said BMS would acquire it for $2.66 per share, with the biotech to become a wholly owned subsidiary after the deal closes.
- The deal comes as Abecma has taken second place after J&J’s Carvykti in the myeloma CAR-T market, with Gilead/Arcellx’s anito-cel poised to erode Abecma’s safety advantage.
- But it could prove advantageous to BMS, which is positioned to remain a major player in myeloma, with multiple approved products and novel candidates in Phase III development.
The news of the deal comes about a year after 2seventy’s 30 January 2024 announcement that it would restructure in order to focus exclusively on Abecma, reducing its headcount from 280 to 65 and selling its pipeline off to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for $5m up front. In June 2024, it sold its last research program, focused on gene therapy, to Novo Nordisk.
Bluebird bio spun out 2seventy in 2021 so that bluebird could focus on gene therapies, but it has had problems of its own, including a risk of debt default due to a shortage of capital. On 21 February, bluebird said it agreed to be acquired by the private equity firms Carlyle and SK Capital Partners, thereby exiting the public market.
2Seventy Deal Comes Amid Myeloma Market Shift
Abecma, which targets BCMA, was the first CAR-T therapy to receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for multiple myeloma, in 2021, initially in patients who had received four prior lines of therapy. A year later, the FDA followed up with approval of Johnson & Johnson and Legend Biotech’s Carvykti (ciltacabtagene autoleucel), also for myeloma patients with at least four prior lines of treatment.
Since then, Abecma has moved up in the treatment paradigm and has approval for third-line and later disease. But Carvykti has quickly leapfrogged Abecma and now has FDA approval for second-line and later disease, which it won in April 2024.
And Carvykti’s market advantages have only piled up since then. Data presented in November at the International Myeloma Society’s annual meeting made Carvykti the first CAR-T in multiple myeloma to show an improvement in overall survival (OS) over standard-of-care therapies in patients refractory to lenalidomide (BMS’s Revlimid and generics). And the CAR-T stands to also expand its geographic reach as J&J and Legend explore its use in the community oncology setting.
Carvykti’s leading position in the market has translated into higher sales too. For the full year of 2024, BMS reported that Abecma had worldwide sales of $406m. But J&J reported sales more than double that for Carvykti at $963m, bringing it closer to becoming the second CAR-T to reach blockbuster status, after Gilead Sciences’ CD19-directed Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which crossed the $1bn mark in 2022. BMS’s own CD19-directed CAR-T for lymphomas, Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel), may not be far behind, with full-year 2024 sales of $747m.
Amid such stiff competition from Carvykti, Abecma could also soon face an additional competitor in the form of Gilead and Arcellx’s anitocabtagene autoleucel (anito-cel). Data from the Phase II iMMagine-1 trial presented on 9 December at the American Society of Hematology meeting showed an overall response rate (ORR) of 97% and a rate of complete response and stringent complete response (CR/sCR) of 62% among 86 patients evaluable for efficacy.
But Gilead/Arcellx have particularly sought to distinguish the product on safety, with data from 98 patients in iMMagine-1 showing that 83% experienced cytokine release syndrome – all grade 1 or grade 2 – and 9% experienced immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), including 4% each at grade 1 and grade 2 and 1% at grade 3. There were no cases of non-ICANS and delayed neurotoxicities, including Parkinsonism, Guillain-Barré syndrome and cranial nerve palsies.
BMS Cements Myeloma Presence
In an 11 March note about BMS’s deal to acquire 2seventy, Leerink Partners analyst Daina Graybosch pointed out that any company looking to acquire 2seventy would still have to consider market uncertainty given the anticipated launch of anito-cel in 2026, which could erode Abecma’s advantage over Carvykti in terms of certain neurological toxicities.
“Thus far, anito-cel has an efficacy profile in line with market leader Carvykti, and movement neurotoxicity (MNT) safety profile in line with Abecma – threatening Abecma’s niche as the option for patients who want to avoid the risk of MNTs like Parkinsonism,” she said.
Still, BMS remains confident, telling Scrip that Abecma “has a well-established efficacy and safety profile, which has been demonstrated across our clinical programs and real-world use in thousands of patients, giving providers confidence in a highly competitive market.”
And even if Abecma remains behind Carvykti in terms of sales, wholesale ownership of the asset is nevertheless advantageous for BMS, given that the drug maker will control both a BCMA-directed CAR-T as well as arlocabtagene autoleucel, its GPRC5D-directed CAR-T in Phase III development for myeloma.
On top of that, BMS’s myeloma pipeline features a dual-targeting CAR-T directed against BCMA and GPRC5D in Phase I development, as well as two small molecules in the Cereblon modulator (CELMoD) class, iberdomide and mezigdomide, in Phase III and the approved immunomodulating drug Pomalyst (pomalidomide).
BMS already is one of the largest players in the multiple myeloma space, given its ownership of Revlimid, which remains a blockbuster despite the staggered introduction of generic versions of the drug. And with full ownership of Abecma plus its pipeline, the company likely will remain a major player for some time alongside J&J, which controls Carvykti, the CD38-directed monoclonal antibody Darzalex (daratumumab), and the bispecific antibodies Tecvayli (teclistamab-cqyv) and Talvey (talquetamab-tgvs), respectively directed against BCMA and GPRC5D.