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BMS Buys Cormorant For up to $520M

Acquisition provides BMS with complete rights to HuMax-IL8

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By: Tim Wright

Editor-in-Chief, Contract Pharma

Bristol-Myers Squibb has acquired privately held Cormorant Pharmaceuticals. According to the company, the transaction included upfront, as well as near term contingent milestone payments of a maximum of $95 million and additional contingent consideration of a maximum of $425 million upon the achievement of some development and regulatory milestones.

The acquisition provides BMS with complete rights to Cormorant’s HuMax-IL8 antibody program and the lead candidate HuMax-IL8, a Phase 1/2 monoclonal antibody targeted against interleukin-8 (IL-8). Incidentally, it represented a potentially complementary immuno-oncology mechanism of action to T-cell directed antibodies and co-stimulatory molecules.

“We believe combination therapy will be foundational to delivering the potential for long-term survival for patients, and the opportunity to develop the HuMax-IL8 antibody program together with our broad immuno-oncology pipeline enables us to accelerate the next wave of potentially transformational immunotherapies,” said Francis Cuss, executive vice president and chief scientific officer, BMS.

BMS said IL-8 is a protein expressed by several solid tumors within the tumor microenvironment suppressing the immune system and boosting the ability of tumors to metastasize. By targeting IL-8, the company added that HuMax-IL8 offers the potential to improve immune response and lift the efficacy of existing cancer medicines through combination therapy. Cormorant acquired the rights to HuMax-IL8 from Genmab A/S in 2012 under an exclusive license agreement.

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