In a bid to bolster its cell therapy portfolio, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) has announced the planned acquisition of Orbital Therapeutics. The takeover, which is worth US$1.5B, provides BMS access to OTX-201, a preclinical in vivo CAR T-cell therapy for the treatment of autoimmune diseases as well as Orbital’s proprietary RNA platform, which integrates circular and linear RNA engineering, lipid nanoparticle delivery, and AI-driven design to enable programmable RNA therapies across multiple disease areas. This move reinforces BMS’s leadership in next-generation cell and gene therapies and complements its existing immunology and oncology assets.