PeptiDream Inc., a Tokyo-based biopharmaceutical company (PeptiDream), announced that the company has achieved a milestone in one of the discovery programmes in its alliance with US-based Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The milestone is the decision by Bristol-Myers Squibb to designate a collaboration compound as a candidate for exploratory clinical development, indicating that the compound has met certain pre-defined criteria and is now suitable for exploratory clinical development. The compound will now proceed to IND-enabling studies. Achievement of this milestone entitles PeptiDream to receive an undisclosed payment specified in the research collaboration and license agreement between PeptiDream and Bristol-Myers Squibb initiated October 15, 2010 and extended on October 15, 2012.

“We are very excited about the acceptance of a collaboration compound as a candidate for clinical development by Bristol-Myers Squibb. This is the first compound identified in the discovery collaboration to enter IND-enabling studies for Bristol-Myers Squibb and we look forward to its transition to clinical investigation. This decision by Bristol-Myers Squibb represents a key validation of PeptiDream’s peptide discovery platform and its ability to identify compounds that can be optimized for clinical studies,” said Kiichi Kubota, pPresident & CEO of PeptiDream Inc.

In the past five years, PeptiDream has established funded discovery collaborations with many leading pharmaceutical companies, such as Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Merck, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Daiichi Sankyo, as well as a strategic collaboration with Ipsen, all of which are active and ongoing. In addition, PeptiDream has transferred its PDPS discovery platform for broad use to Bristol-Myers-Squibb and Novartis.