Bristol Myers Squibb's Mega $8.4B Oncology Bet - Secures Exclusive License With SystImmune

SystImmune and Bristol Myers Squibb & Co BMY announced an exclusive license and collaboration agreement for SystImmune's BL-B01D1, a potentially first-in-class EGFRxHER3 bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). 

BL-B01D1 has the potential to treat patients with lung and breast cancer, with opportunities to expand into additional tumor types.

SystImmune will be solely responsible for development, commercialization, and manufacturing in Mainland China and for manufacturing certain drug supplies outside of Mainland China. 

Bristol Myers Squibb will assume sole responsibility for development and commercialization in the rest of the world.

Bristol Myers will pay SystImmune up to $8.4 billion for the rights, including an $800 million upfront payment to SystImmune and as much as $500 million in contingent near-term payments and additional payments of up to $7.1 billion contingent payments.

William Blair writes that Bristol's (Market Perform rating) decision to in-license another ADC further diversifies and strengthens the company's oncology portfolio amid increasing interest in ADCs among pharma companies. 

This ADC investment comes after Bristol Myers' recent acquisition of Orum Therapeutic's ORM-6151 program (anti-CD33 antibody-enabled GSPT1 degrader) in November, as well as a payment of $22.8 million to Tubulis for access to the company's ADC creation platform, and a previous license for MORab-202 from Eisai, William Blair notes.

Last month, AbbVie Inc ABBV agreed to acquire ADC-maker ImmunoGen Inc IMGN for $10.1 billion, while Pfizer Inc's PFE $43 billion purchase of Seagen Inc SGEN received all required regulatory approvals just today. Pfizer expects to close the acquisition on December 14.

Price Action: BMY shares are down 0.18% at $51.00 during the premarket session on the last check Tuesday.

Photo Via Company