BMS And Five Prime Link Up For Novel Immuno-Oncology Therapies

Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Five Prime Therapeutics for the discovery, development, and marketing of immune-oncology therapies designed for two targets identified in two unrevealed immune checkpoint pathways using Five Prime’s target discovery platform.

Francis Cuss, MB BChir, FRCP, executive vice president and chief scientific officer at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said “Immuno-oncology has the potential to be transformational in the treatment of cancer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb has an extensive clinical pipeline and discovery programs dedicated to maximizing this field of research. Five Prime’s innovative technology platforms complement our immuno-oncology pipeline and will help expand our understanding of promising new therapeutic options for patients.”

BMS will leverage Five Prime’s platform to further develop its existing immune-oncology programs through identification of the most viable targets for R&D advancement. Candidates developed for both and new existing targets may be studied as single agents or in combination with current or future potential immune-oncology therapies.

Lewis T. Williams, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Five Prime, said “We are thrilled to enter this important collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb, an undisputed leader in the exciting field of immuno-oncology. This strategic alliance is evidence that our protein discovery platform is ideally suited to identify novel immune checkpoint targets for the development of next generation immuno-oncology therapeutics.”

Under the terms of the new agreement, Bristol-Myers Squibb will gain exclusive, global rights to develop and market products directed toward specific targets identified by Five Prime Therapeutics before and during the collaboration. BMS will make an upfront payment of $20 million to Five Prime and up to $9.5 million in research funding over the course of the research period. In addition, BMS will pay an estimated $21 million for the acquisition of 4.9% of Five Prime’s outstanding common stock sold at about 30% premium.

Five Prime will be eligible to receive milestone payments of up to $300 million per collaboration target on net sales of products marketed by BMS.