HOUSTON, April 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLCM), a leader in developing novel, controllable cellular immunotherapies for cancers, today announced closing of the sale of its Houston facility to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at a purchase price of $15 million.

“We are pleased with the closing of the transaction as the preferred supply agreement provides Bellicum access to cell therapy product supply while reducing our operating expenses,” said Rick Fair, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bellicum.

About Sale of the Houston Facility

In January 2020, Bellicum entered into an asset purchase agreement under which MD Anderson would acquire Bellicum’s approximately 60,000-square-foot Houston facility, including manufacturing, office and laboratory space. As part of the transaction, Bellicum also entered into a master services agreement with MD Anderson. Following completion of the transaction, MD Anderson will operate the Houston facility for its own internal programs as well as to manufacture Bellicum’s GoCAR and other cellular therapy programs for clinical trials and potentially early commercial supply.

About Bellicum Pharmaceuticals

Bellicum is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company striving to deliver cures through controllable cell therapies. The company’s next-generation product candidates are differentiated by powerful cell signaling technologies designed to produce more effective CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies. Bellicum’s lead GoCAR-T^® candidate, BPX-601, is designed to be a more efficacious CAR-T cell product capable of overriding key immune inhibitory mechanisms. More information about Bellicum can be found at www.bellicum.com.