Blackstone, Cellex Cell Professionals, a biotechnology company, and Intellia Therapeutics, a developer of biopharmaceuticals, agreed to create the joint venture in a $250m deal. The new company will combine GEMoaB’s clinical-stage universal CAR-T platforms with Intellia’s differentiated allogeneic cell platform and CRISPR cell engineering. “This launch represents the first of many steps to addressing the various limitations that currently exist in the cell therapy space, and I am both humbled and excited to be leading the creation of this company with a team of extremely talented individuals. Bringing together GEMoaB’s universal CAR-T platform with Intellia’s differentiated allogeneic T cell platform and CRISPR-based cell engineering provides a unique opportunity to move cell therapy technology to new heights. Our focus is on providing significantly safer and more efficacious treatments to patients who are suffering from hard-to-treat cancers and autoimmune diseases," Andrew Schiermeier, Intellia Executive Vice President and COO.