Cellares to Lay Off 100 Employees After Losing Large Cell Therapy Manufacturing Partner
核心洞察
Cellares (搜索), a South San Francisco cell therapy manufacturing specialist, plans to lay off 100 employees following the loss of a partnership with an unspecified large pharmaceutical customer.
CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus said the loss "requires us to resize the company," with affected roles primarily in software engineering, quality control, design, and manufacturing.
The company says it has more than doubled its customer base since the start of the year and that its Cell Shuttle technology is "proven in the clinic."
Cellares (搜索), a well-funded biotechnology startup focused on cell therapy manufacturing, plans to lay off 100 employees after losing a partnership with an unspecified large pharmaceutical customer, according to a regulatory filing and statements from company leadership.
The South San Francisco company, which just two months ago topped off a $327 million Series D round, will restructure as a result of the lost partnership, CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus wrote in a LinkedIn post. "The loss of this partnership requires us to resize the company," Gerlinghaus said, adding that "that means saying goodbye to talented colleagues who helped build Cellares (搜索) and advance our mission."
A spokesperson declined to provide the name of the partner, but wrote in an email that Cellares (搜索) has "more than doubled the number of customers we serve since the beginning of the year." The company also could not comment on specific headcount details or the identity of the customer that walked away, describing the move as "specific to" that company.
Restructuring Details
The affected Cellares (搜索) employees will be terminated by Oct. 20, and are primarily software engineers, quality control and design staff and manufacturing specialists, according to a WARN Act filing with California's Employment Development Department.
In an email, a Cellares (搜索) spokesperson told Fierce that "this reduction is designed to concentrate Cellares' people and resources behind the clinical and commercial programs the company is advancing."
Technology and Partnerships
Cellares (搜索) bills itself as an "integrated" development and manufacturing organization for cell therapies, and claims its automated "Cell Shuttles" can help speed up the production of these treatments. The company's work revolves around its automated cell therapy manufacturing platform, the Cell Shuttle, and a piece of companion automation technology for quality control, dubbed the Cell Q.
The approach has drawn the interest of multiple drugmakers, among them Bristol Myers Squibb (搜索), Sonoma Biotherapeutics (搜索) and Cabaletta Bio. The Bristol Myers Squibb deal involved $380 million in total payouts. Cellares (搜索) has also partnered with Gilead Sciences' Kite Pharma (搜索).
In July, the company brought Sonoma Biotherapeutics (搜索) on board with a pact to automate manufacturing of Sonoma's lead program for poly-refractory rheumatoid arthritis (搜索). Meanwhile, after unveiling their first-in-patient dosing milestone earlier this year, Cellares (搜索) and its partner Cabaletta Bio doubled down with a 10-year commercial supply pact for rese-cel, Cabaletta's CAR-T cell therapy under investigation in several potential autoimmune indications.
Clinical Validation and Regulatory Milestones
Gerlinghaus stressed that he wanted "to be clear about something that is fundamental to Cellares (搜索): our technology is proven in the clinic." He pointed to the milestone administration of cell therapies produced on Cellares' manufacturing technology—the Cell Shuttle—to patients earlier this year, and argued that his company's fundamentals "remain strong."
The companies still aligned with Cellares (搜索) "have reiterated their commitment to working with Cellares, and several are already discussing additional programs, accelerating existing collaborations, and advancing with us toward commercial manufacturing," Gerlinghaus wrote on LinkedIn.
Cellares (搜索) has also secured notable regulatory validation. The Cell Shuttle won advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) designation from the FDA last spring. More recently, the regulator named a Cellares production site in Bridgewater, New Jersey, as one of seven for its PreCheck Pilot Program—an initiative intended to strengthen U.S. drug production and bolster domestic supply chain resilience. At the end of June, the company said it was the only cell therapy manufacturer selected for the Food and Drug Administration's "pre-check" pilot program, which is supposed to streamline regulatory reviews and help quickly build manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
Cellares (搜索)' primary manufacturing facility is in New Jersey, and the company is building new plants in Europe and Japan.