Will the Orbital Acquisition Strengthen BMY's Cell Therapy Portfolio?

Bristol Myers BMY recently announced that it will acquire privately held biotechnology company Orbital Therapeutics for $1.5 billion in cash.

The acquisition will add OTX-201, an investigational next-generation CAR T-cell therapy designed to reprogram cells in vivo with a potential best-in-class profile for autoimmune diseases, to BMY’s pipeline.

This in vivo approach, in which the patient’s own body serves as the manufacturer of CAR T-cells, has the potential to offer a reduced treatment burden and improved accessibility compared to ex vivo CAR T-cell therapies.

BMY will also add Orbital’s proprietary RNA platform to its pipeline. This RNA platform integrates circular and linear RNA engineering, advanced lipid nanoparticles delivery, and AI-driven design to enable durable, programmable RNA therapies tailored to the distinct biology of a broad spectrum of diseases.

Bristol Myers’ cell therapy portfolio currently comprises Breyanzi and Abecma. Breyanzi is a CD19-directed CAR T cell therapy with a 4-1BB costimulatory domain, which enhances the expansion and persistence of the CAR T cells.

It is approved in the United States for the treatment of relapsed (went into remission, then came back) or refractory (did not go into remission after receiving other treatments) large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) after at least one prior line of therapy. Breyanzi also received accelerated approval for the treatment of relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma after at least two prior lines of therapy and relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) in the third-line plus setting. It is approved for the treatment of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma in the third-line plus setting.

Breyanzi sales skyrocketed 125% to $344 million in the second quarter, reflecting strong demand across all indications and higher-than-expected infusions that benefited second-quarter performance.

In May 2025, BMY acquired 2seventy bio, granting the former full U.S. rights to Abecma, a cell therapy for treating adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

BMY’s Cell Therapy Business Faces Competition

BMY’s cell therapies face competition from Gilead Sciences’ GILD Yescarta and Novartis’ NVS Kymeriah for many of its approved indications.

Gilead’s Yescarta is a CD19-directed genetically modified autologous T cell immunotherapy indicated for the treatment of adult patients with LBCL that is refractory to first-line chemoimmunotherapy or relapses within 12 months of first-line chemoimmunotherapy. It is also approved for adult patients with relapsed or refractory LBCL after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) not otherwise specified, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, high-grade B-cell lymphoma, and DLBCL arising from FL.

GILD posted Yescarta sales of $393 million for the second quarter of 2025.  

Another approved CAR-T therapy is NVS’ Kymriah, which is approved for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is either relapsing or refractory. It is also indicated in patients with LBCL or FL, two types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, that have relapsed or are refractory after having at least two other kinds of treatment.

BMY’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of Bristol Myers have lost 18.4% year to date against the industry’s growth of 9.2%.

From a valuation standpoint, BMY is trading at a discount to the large-cap pharma industry.  Going by the price/earnings ratio, BMY’s shares currently trade at 7.19X forward earnings, lower than its mean of 8.45X and the large-cap pharma industry’s 15.70X.

The bottom-line estimate for 2025 has moved north to $6.48 from $6.46 in the past 60 days, while that for 2026 has moved south to $6.02 from $6.04 in the same timeframe.

BMY currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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