Roughly two years after securing a former Novartis facility in Illinois to support its CAR-T cancer treatments Breyanzi and Abecma, Bristol Myers Squibb is rethinking its operations at the site.
BMS will cease production of viral vectors from its plant in Libertyville, Illinois, the company told Fierce Pharma on Friday. The facility, which was previously used by Novartis to manufacture the gene therapy Zolgensma, was picked up by BMS in early 2023 to bolster viral vector capacity for its commercial cell therapy portfolio.
Internalizing viral vector production remains one of BMS’ top priorities, and over the past year, the company has continued to expand in the field, a BMS spokesperson said in a statement. In turn, the company plans to pivot its vector work from the Libertyville site to another BMS cell therapy plant in Devens, Massachusetts, the spokesperson explained.
The move is designed to create an integrated manufacturing model that is also more cost effective and scalable than Bristol’s current cell therapy approach, the spokesperson said.
“Unfortunately, this means we’ve made the difficult decision to cease vector manufacturing in Libertyville, a site that has operated at the highest level for BMS Cell Therapy,” she added.
The decision has impacted “some of our employees,” the spokesperson said, without disclosing expected layoff numbers. As for the Libertyville plant itself, BMS is “evaluating options” and “proactively working with our landlord on lease plans,” the spokesperson noted.
The Libertyville location is no longer listed on BMS’ online sitemap.
When BMS revealed it had acquired the Libertyville plant in 2023, the drugmaker said it would hold on to some of the 275 staffers working at the facility after Novartis announced plans to halt operations at the site in Nov. 2022.
At the time, BMS said the facility acquisition—which included a lease of the site and a purchase of the plant’s assets—would beef up its viral vector production, allowing the company to churn out both “current and next-generation vector technology.”
As for the Devens site where BMS plans to relocate viral vector production, the 700,000-square-foot plant handles both process development and commercial manufacturing. The FDA cleared a facility at the campus to start producing commercial cell therapies back in 2023.
BMS also counts facilities in New Jersey and Washington among its U.S. cell therapy manufacturing network.
BMS is charting the production pivot alongside a new cost-cutting initiative. In early February, the company said it planned to save $2 billion in costs by the end of 2027, adding on to a separate $1.5 billion savings initiative unveiled in April 2024.
That first effort targeted more than 2,000 layoffs, while the more recent initiative is set to spur an unknown number of additional job cuts at the company, BMS said at the time.