Cowen analyst Eric Schmidt said newly presented data on Incyte (INCY) and Merck's (MRK) epacadostat combo with Keytruda in solid tumors appears competitive with Bristol-Myers' (BMY) ipi+nivo combination, but acknowledged that the "very early" results in other tumors types seem less compelling than in previous abstract form. An abstract released on Tuesday had indicated a 79% ORR in the first 19 evaluable patients of the company's Phase I trial, so the 40% ORR from 45 patients in new data presented at the SITC meeting may be seen as a disappointment to some, Schmidt noted. However, the analyst still views epacadostat as a "highly promising candidate" and keeps an Outperform rating on Incyte 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.