Bristol Myers Squibb Ends Cellares Cell-Therapy Alliance; Cellares Announces 100 Layoffs After Loss of Anchor Customer
Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 ended its cell therapy manufacturing alliance with Cellares (South San Francisco) after finding that Cellares' Cell Shuttle automated production system failed to meet the requirements for making the CAR-T immunotherapy Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel). BMS and Cellares had signed a $380 million global capacity reservation and supply agreement in 2024 that positioned BMS to use Cell Shuttle for end-to-end automated CAR-T production at clinical and commercial scales. Cellares announced 100 layoffs (roughly 20% of the workforce) in response to the loss of the contract, coming just two months after closing a $327 million Series D. Cellares CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus said the company will 'resize' operations. The story is a data point on the fragility of contract cell-therapy manufacturing platforms and, by extension, a caution flag on the parallel automated-peptide-synthesis vendor category as GLP-1 and next-gen peptide production leans further on continuous-flow and automated platforms.