BMS builds in ‘in vivo’ cell therapy with $1.5bn Orbital buy

Bristol Myers Squibb has ended the week with an agreement to buy Orbital Therapeutics – a developer of in vivo cell therapies – for $1.5 billion in cash.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Orbital is developing RNA medicines that can ‘reprogramme’ immune cells in the body and direct them to treat diseases. Its pipeline is headed by OTX-201, an in vivo CAR-T therapy being developed for autoimmune diseases.

The takeover deal is the second acquisition by a big pharma group of a smaller in vivo cell therapy player in recent months, coming after Gilead Sciences bought Interius for $350 million…