Piper Jaffray analyst Richard Purkiss lowered his price target for Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) to $62 saying he sees the company ceding Opdivo's early-mover advantage in lung cancer to competitors. The analyst expects to see details from Roche's (RHHBY) positive OAK trial of Tecentriq vs. docetaxel in non-small cell lung cancer at the upcoming ESMO meeting. Purkiss also expects to see details from Merck's (MRK) positive KEYNOTE-024 trial of Keytruda. The analyst lowered his post-2016 Opdivo forecasts and reiterates a Neutral rating on Bristol shares.

Bristol Myers Squibb and Cellares, a development and manufacturing organization dedicated to clinical and industrial-scale cell therapy manufacturing, announced a worldwide capacity reservation and supply agreement for the manufacture of CAR T cell therapies in a transaction valued up to $380M in upfront and milestone payments. As part of the agreement, Cellares will optimize, automate, and tech-transfer select Bristol Myers Squibb CAR T cell therapies onto its automated and high-throughput manufacturing platform, the Cell Shuttle. Cellares will dedicate multiple Cell Shuttle and Cell Q systems with fully automated, high-throughput quality control for Bristol Myers Squibb's exclusive use. The Cell Shuttles and Cell Qs will be deployed in Cellares' Smart Factories in the U.S., EU, and Japan. This agreement expands upon the existing collaborations between Bristol Myers Squibb and Cellares. In August 2023, Bristol Myers Squibb participated in Cellares' Series C financing to launch the first IDMO Smart Factory in an effort to meet the demand for cell therapies globally. That same month, Bristol Myers Squibb joined Cellares' Technology Adoption Partnership Program to evaluate the Cell Shuttle's automated manufacturing capabilities.