Editas Medicine, Inc. announced a two-year extension to the collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb under which the parties may research, develop, and commercialize autologous and allogeneic alpha-beta T cell medicines for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. The extension also has options to extend the collaboration for up to an additional two years.
Under the collaboration, Bristol Myers Squibb has opted into 13 different programs across 11 gene targets to date. Two programs are currently in IND-enabling studies, and four programs are in late-stage discovery.
“Bristol Myers Squibb is a leader in advancing innovative medicines to treat serious diseases, and we are pleased to extend our relationship to develop medicines for serious diseases,” said Linda C. Burkly, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer. “As we’ve increased our internal commitment to advancing in vivo gene editing medicines, we believe this collaboration will be effective in making the next generation of allogeneic medicines to fight many common cancers.”
Under the terms of the original agreement, Editas Medicine may develop genome editing tools and Bristol Myers Squibb will have rights to opt-in to such genome editing tools for development of gene edited alpha-beta T cell therapies. For each new experimental medicine that Bristol Myers Squibb develops and commercializes using opted-into genome editing tools, Bristol Myers Squibb will pay Editas Medicine potential future milestone payments. Following the approval of any products resulting from the collaboration, Editas Medicine is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on net sales.
Editas Medicine and Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (Celgene, now Bristol Myers Squibb), originally entered into a strategic research collaboration in 2015 focused on creating chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) and high-affinity T cell receptor (TCR) cell therapies to treat cancer. The exclusive research period under the original collaboration was set to expire in 2020 and was amended in 2019 with Celgene/Bristol Myers Squibb replacing the original agreement and allowing Editas to develop non-alpha-beta T cell therapies, while expanding Celgene/Bristol Myers Squibb’s access to gene-edited alpha-beta T cells beyond oncology. The current research agreement was set to expire in 2024 and has now been extended to 2026 with two options for one-year extensions extending the relationship into 2028.
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