Bristol Myers Squibb agreed to acquire Orbital Therapeutics for $1.5 billion in cash, buying access to Orbital’s in vivo CAR‑T technology and lead autoimmune program OTX‑201. BMS said the purchase brings an in‑house capability to reprogram immune cells inside patients, a modality designed to avoid ex vivo manufacturing and high‑dose lymphodepletion. Orbital’s platform is early‑stage but targets a major scalability challenge for cell therapy; BMS framed the acquisition as a fast route to diversify its cell therapy pipeline into autoimmune indications. The deal follows a wave of large pharma purchases of in vivo cell therapy startups and signals intensified competition among large drugmakers to secure platforms that could lower cost and complexity of CAR‑T-style approaches.