Dive Brief:

• Repertoire Immune Medicines, a biotechnology startup formed by Flagship Pioneering, announced Monday a deal with Bristol Myers Squibb to create vaccines that can rebalance the immune systems of people with autoimmune diseases.
• Repertoire will get $65 million upfront, and could receive up to $1.8 billion more in the future, to develop therapies for up to three inflammatory conditions. The startup will lead research until a candidate is nominated, after which Bristol Myers will run clinical development, interactions with regulators, and, if any are ever approved, marketing.
• The alliance is the first for Repertoire, which Flagship launched in 2020 by merging two portfolio companies focused on cancer and immune disease research. The startup has raised more than $350 million since its founding, but underwent a strategic reset in 2022 that reportedly involved laying off nearly half its staff.

Dive Insight:

Repertoire has switched from the personalized cancer cell therapies revealed at its launch to focus on bispecific antibodies and mRNA-based vaccines.

The Flagship-backed startup stopped Phase 1 trials for two therapies in 2022 after disappointing study results. Repertoire then cut staff, changed its strategy and hired as CEO Torben Straight Nissen, the former head of another Flagship startup, Rubius Therapeutics.

The new plan centers around “off-the-shelf” and “scalable” medicines, according to Straight Nissen. The company has since built a pipeline of 10 publicly disclosed research programs and intends to nominate its first candidates in cancer and autoimmune diseases within six to 12 months.

“We felt that it was worth making that transition into therapies that can be deployed for all,” he said. The types of therapies it’s working on now “can be used and administered to tens of thousands of people.”

The deal announced Monday will provide financial assistance for Repertoire to more quickly advance its work. “It seemed to me it would be reasonable to believe there would be partnerships we could enter into like the one with [Bristol Myers]” after the company changed course, Straight Nissen said.

The collaboration with Bristol Myers focuses on what Repertoire calls “tolerizing” vaccines, which are designed to blunt the overactive immune responses in people with autoimmune disease. Repertoire claims the approach may induce durable remissions without the need for the immunosuppressive drugs people typically take to treat such conditions.

“We’re using the concept of a vaccine here because we’re trying to address the underlying drivers of disease,” Straight Nissen said.

Bristol Myers and Repertoire didn’t mention what diseases they’ll target. But Repertoire’s internal pipeline includes autoimmune candidates for Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Neither are in clinical testing.

For Bristol Myers, the alliance is another effort to build its immunology portfolio. The company currently sells several immune disease drugs, including the psoriasis treatment Sotyktu. But they account for only a fraction of its revenue, and Bristol Myers has shown interest in making the field a bigger priority. It’s started work on cell therapies for autoimmune diseases by signing deals and ramping up internal projects, for instance.

“Our collaboration with Repertoire aims to selectively reset the immune system, reflecting a key component of our immunology research strategy,” Francisco Ramírez-Valle, head of Bristol Myers’ Immunology & Cardiovascular Thematic Research Center, in a statement.