Oncodesign, a biotechnology company serving the pharmaceutical industry in the discovery of new therapeutic molecules to fight cancer and other serious illnesses with no known effective treatment, has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company to discover, develop and commercialize novel macrocyclic compounds.
The collaboration is based on Oncodesign’s platform of small macrocycles, Nanocyclix®, and will also engage the advanced oncology pharmacology models at Oncodesign for cancer applications, Predict®, Chi-mice® and Pharmimage®. The collaboration will potentially include multiple therapeutic areas and involve phenotypic cell-based approaches.
The goal of the collaboration is to generate novel Nanocyclix® based compounds for targets of interest to Bristol-Myers Squibb. These small macrocycles are highly potent and selective and have favorable characteristics allowing knowledge driven optimization beyond what is typically possible with conventional molecular designs.
Under the terms of the agreement, Oncodesign will be primarily responsible for hit to lead and lead optimization up to the candidate selection stage for oncology targets and potentially for certain non-oncology targets. Bristol-Myers Squibb will be solely responsible for completing preclinical and clinical development of all products arising from the collaboration and for their commercialization globally.
Oncodesign will receive an upfront payment of $3 million and research, development and regulatory based milestone payments of up to $80 million per target. In addition, Oncodesign is eligible to receive tiered royalties and sales based milestones for each product resulting from the collaboration.
"We are excited to have reached this agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb, one of the most innovative biopharmaceutical companies today. This strategic collaboration is by far the largest one we have entered into up to now; it will allow us to fully exploit the potential of our technology platforms in both chemistry and biology. In addition to advancing our internal and already partnered programs, this new collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb may generate new treatment options for patients that have no solutions today – and that is what we are here for”, said Philippe Genne, PhD, founder and CEO of Oncodesign.
“Nanocyclix® has generated a broad diversity of entirely novel molecules that have unique properties and that seem to match well with programs of interest to Bristol-Myers Squibb”, added Jan Hoflack, PhD, CSO of Oncodesign. “The potential of using our macrocycles in multiple therapeutic areas, both on defined targets and in phenotypic approaches further expands the application of our molecules. We are honored that Bristol-Myers Squibb has selected our technologies to advance on programs that they have highly prioritized”.