Bristol Myers Squibb is placing a $65 million bet on Repertoire Immune Medicines’ approach to resetting the immune system. The deal, which features up to $1.8 billion in future payments, gives BMS the right to collaborate with Repertoire on tolerizing vaccines for up to three autoimmune diseases
Repertoire, a Flagship-founded biotech that underwent a major reset in 2022, is built on technology for mapping the immune synapse. By looking at T-cell receptor-epitope pairs and other details, the biotech believes it can identify disease-driving epitopes and use them to develop off-the-shelf therapies. Applied to autoimmune diseases, the approach is delivering mRNA vaccines for restoring immune homeostasis.
Internally, Repertoire is applying its Decode platform to Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The biotech is retaining full ownership of those programs, which are in lead optimization, and teaming up with BMS to work on up to three new projects.
The platform is applicable to “all autoimmune diseases that have an associated class 2 HLA risk allele,” Repertoire CEO Torben Straight Nissen, Ph.D., said. That gives BMS a broad range of indications to pick from, and neither party has shared details. The partners will initially collaborate on one program, but the deal gives BMS the option to add up to two more projects.
Repertoire will lead all activities through to development candidate nomination. At that stage, BMS will step up and handle clinical development, regulatory affairs and commercialization under an exclusive worldwide license. While BMS is taking the lead in the clinic, Repertoire will continue to support studies using Decode. The work reflects the potential for the platform to support discovery and development.
When people receive tolerizing vaccines, Decode can track changes to the regulatory T-cell population that is specific to the targeted epitope. “Once you see those [cells] expand, you know that the vaccine will be efficacious so that it’s really a pharmacodynamic marker of efficacy,” Nissen said. The platform will play a role in choosing the dose and ensuring the right epitopes are included in the vaccines.
Signing up BMS provides external validation for a biotech that got off to a bumpy start. After making a splash with a $189 million financing round, Repertoire went on to ax its top two assets, replace its CEO and lay off almost half of its staff. Nissen came on board to lead Repertoire through the transition and oversaw the start of autoimmune business development outreach around 12 months ago.
“There’s really a lot of interest and momentum in autoimmunity in general,” Nissen told Fierce Biotech in an interview. “We think that getting more and more specific about targeting just the drivers of autoimmune disease is really going to unlock this whole field. That was why it was important for us to do a deal in that space.”
BMS’ leadership in immune medicines and track record of pursuing new modalities made it the “perfect partner,” Nissen said, but Repertoire remains interested in exploring opportunities with other pharma companies.
Money from BMS and potentially other partners will go toward an in-house operation that is split evenly between cancer and autoimmune disease. Repertoire aims to pick drug development candidates from the oncology TCR bispecific side of its pipeline in the next six to 12 months and is “well capitalized to meet our next milestones,” Nissen said.
This morning’s deal comes as BMS implements a $1.5 billion restructuring effort due to result in about 2,200 layoffs this year and ending development on roughly a dozen assets.