Bristol-Meyers Squibb Establishes Partnerships With CytomX Therapeutics And Incyte
By Cyndi Root
Bristol-Meyers Squibb (BMS) announced that it has formed two new partnerships with CytomX Therapeutics and Incyte. Announced in a press release, BMS’s collaboration with Incyte is to investigate a combination immunotherapy treatment of BMS’s nivolumab and Incyte’s INCB24360 for multiple cancers.
In its press release regarding CytomX Therapeutics, BMS said the two companies will conduct drug discovery for immuno-oncology targets. Michael Giordano, SVP of Oncology and Immunosciences Development at BMS said, “Bristol-Myers Squibb is committed to pursuing the full potential of its immuno-oncology portfolio through the study of promising approaches to combination regimens.”
BMS and Incyte
BMS and Incyte intend to begin clinical studies by the end of 2014. The companies only disclosed that the study will be co-funded, and shared no further details about the partnership. The clinical trial will test the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of nivolumab and INCB24360. Nivolumab is a PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor and INCB24360 is an indoleamine dioxygenase-1 (IDO1) inhibitor. Investigators in the Phase I/II study will expose multiple cancer tumor types to the combination treatment including melanoma, non-small cell lung (NSCLC), ovarian, colorectal (CRC), squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The two companies have decided to proceed to clinical studies together because preliminary work suggests that they will work better in collaboration, rather than alone, in using the immune system to fight cancer.
BMS and CytomX Therapeutics
BMS and CytomX Therapeutics have agreed to discover and market novel immunotherapies for multiple immuno-oncology targets. CytomX grants BMS the rights to develop CytomX’s proprietary Probody Platform for up to four oncology targets. BMS will make a $50 million upfront payment to CytomX and will provide up to $298 million for development and regulatory costs as well as provide milestone and royalty payments. BMS will use CytomX’s Probodies, which are monoclonal antibodies. They are selectively activated in the cancer environment and engage the tumors while sparing the healthy cells.
CytomX Therapeutics is also working with other pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer and ImmunoGen. The Pfizer partnership began in June of 2013 to develop Probody drug conjugates (PDCs) in oncology. The ImmunoGen partnership began in January of 2014 to develop PDCs for cancer treatment.