Houston?manufacturing facility and portions of Bellicum?s Technical Operations and Quality staff to be acquired by MD Anderson

Current and future GoCAR? product candidates to be manufactured by MD Anderson

HOUSTON,?Jan. 21, 2020?(GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --?Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc.?(NASDAQ:BLCM), a leader in developing novel, controllable cellular immunotherapies for cancers, today announced it has entered into an asset purchase agreement under which?The?University of Texas?MD?Anderson Cancer Center?will acquire Bellicum?s approximately 60,000-square-foot?Houston?facility, including manufacturing, office and laboratory space, for?$15 million. As part of the transaction, Bellicum also will enter 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. ?After conducting a thorough evaluation of our manufacturing strategy, we pursued and structured this agreement with MD Anderson to serve the best interests of our patients, employees, partners, and shareholders,? said?Rick Fair, President and Chief Executive Officer of?Bellicum Pharmaceuticals. ?The preferred supply agreement assures Bellicum?s access to cell therapy product supply while reducing our operating expenses. Bellicum?s corporate headquarters in?Houston?will remain the center of excellence for our research, process and analytical development, third-party manufacturing, and quality assurance functions.? The sale of the manufacturing facility is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020. Transition activities are underway. Closing of the transaction is subject to several conditions, including consent of the building landlord. Approximately 35 employees currently employed at the facility will be employed by MD Anderson. 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 allogeneic 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 can be found at?www.bellicum.com. Forward-Looking Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.?Bellicum may, in some cases, use terms such as ?predicts,? ?believes,? ?potential,? ?proposed,? ?continue,? ?designed,? ?estimates,? ?anticipates,? ?expects,? ?plans,? ?intends,? ?may,? ?could,? ?might,? ?will,? ?should? or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations concerning, among other things:?the anticipated closing of the sale of our manufacturing facility; our expectations regarding assured supply the future product needs of Bellicum; our expectations regarding the transfer of employees with the sale of the facility; our expectations regarding the smooth transition of the facility and employees; and our expectations regarding reduced operating expenses as a result of these transactions. Various factors may cause differences between Bellicum?s expectations and actual results, including the risk that the closing conditions are not met, including obtaining the requisite approvals from third parties, and other factors discussed in greater detail under the heading ?Risk Factors? in Bellicum?s filings with the?Securities and Exchange Commission, including without limitation our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended?September 30, 2019 and our annual report on Form 10-K the year ended?December 31, 2018. Any forward-looking statements that Bellicum makes in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. Bellicum assumes no obligation to update our forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release. Source:?Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Investors: Robert H. Uhl Managing Director Westwicke IR 858-356-5932 Robert.uhl@westwicke.com Media: Kate Coyle Senior Vice President Westwicke PR 203-682-8210 kate.coyle@icrinc.com   Source: Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc.