Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS) and Adnexus Therapeutics have announced a worldwide strategic alliance to discover, develop and commercialise Adnectin-based therapeutics for important oncology-related targets.

The goal of the collaboration is to discover and develop biologic compounds specifically tuned to modulate oncology targets of high clinical impact. Adnexus will deploy its PROfusion technology on up to six research programmes to identify and deliver pre-clinical Adnectin candidates to Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Bristol-Myers Squibb will be responsible for global development and commercialisation activities, with Adnexus retaining a limited co-promotion right to the first product to achieve regulatory approval in the United States.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bristol-Myers Squibb will provide committed funds of approximately $30 million over the next three years to Adnexus, consisting of upfront and guaranteed research payments. Adnexus also is eligible to receive regulatory milestone payments of up to $210 million per product, as well as royalties on product sales and sales-based milestone payments.

"Bristol-Myers Squibb is focused on discovering and commercialising medicines to treat serious diseases with unmet medical need, including cancer, and we are committed to expanding our biologics portfolio because we believe these medicines have the potential to improve patient treatment options," said Francis Cuss, MD, senior vice president of Discovery and exploratory clinical research for Bristol-Myers Squibb. "The company continues to invest in new approaches to drug discovery, and this collaboration allows us to obtain key product rights to multi-functional Adnectins. We are excited about combining Bristol-Myers Squibb's broad experience in oncology research with Adnexus' new platform to explore novel biologic oncology treatments."

"Bristol-Myers Squibb has world class expertise in oncology, and we look forward to working together using our PROfusion and Adnectin combination to discover potential therapies for people with cancer," said John Mendlein, PhD, JD, CEO of Adnexus. "Our recently published clinical data on Adnexus' selective VEGFR-2 blocker, Angiocept, validates the broad utility of our proprietary Adnectin class, especially in cancer."