Bristol Myers Squibb terminated its $380 million collaboration with cell-therapy manufacturing startup Cellares, setting off a restructuring at the CDMO. The parties cited Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel) commercial manufacturing requirements as the reason for the pullout. Cellares’ CEO and co-founder Fabian Gerlinghaus said the decision was specific to a customer and that the company disagreed with BMS’ characterization of the Cell Shuttle system’s manufacturing capability. Cellares said it had already produced GMP drug product in an FDA-regulated clinical program and that doses met release specifications on time. The termination raises near-term execution risk for Cellares’ planned international expansion, while Cellares’ management said it is concentrating resources on a growing portfolio of clinical and commercial customer programs. BMS’s decision underscores how commercial-grade manufacturing criteria can determine the fate of emerging cell-therapy process platforms.