BioNTech flips its cancer bispecific to BMS for a big profit
BMS chief executive Chris Boerner.
Bristol Myers Squibb has reached for its wallet to avoid being left behind in the race to develop a new class of bispecific antibodies for cancer that have been billed as the next big thing in immunotherapy.
It has licensed a PD-L1xVEGF bispecific antibody developed by BioNTech for a massive $1.5 billion upfront, another $2 billion in "anniversary payments" through to 2027, and up to $7.6 billion in additional development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
All told, it's a massive $11 billion financial commitment to the drug, codenamed BNT327, which is in phase 3 testing in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with late-stage testing in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) due to start by the end of this year and studies across multiple other solid tumour types in the planning stages.
Ever since Summit Therapeutics and partner Akeso revealed data last year showing that their PD-1xVEGF bispecific ivonescimab outperformed MSD's $25 billion-a-year, market-leading PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in a head-to-head trial, there has been a rash of big-ticket licensing deals for assets in the same class.
The trial led some market observers to predict that drugs targeting both PD-1/PD-L1 and VEGF could become 'Keytruda killers' and potentially replacements for checkpoint inhibitor-based standard-of-care treatments for a broad range of solid tumours.
Last month, Pfizer joined the fray by licensing rights to 3SBio's SSGJ-707 in a $6 billion deal, while MSD penned its own near-$3.3 billion deal last year to get rights to LaNova Medicines' LM-299.
Meanwhile, BioNTech itself bought into the category with its takeover of BNT327's developer Biotheus unit last year for what now looks like a knockdown price of $800 million, with another $150 million payable in performance-based milestones.
The deal with BMS takes the form of a global co-development and co-commercialisation partnership, with profits shared equally between the two companies, with the big pharma's resources thrown at accelerating the clinical development of the bispecific.
For BMS, the deal gives it a potential successor to its PD-1 inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab), which contributed $9.3 billion of its $48.3 billion revenues last year, but, by some predictions, could start to lose market exclusivity in 2028.
"The science behind BNT327 and its leading clinical position in multiple hard-to-treat tumour types, further bolsters our pursuit of novel mechanisms and multiple modalities in oncology and enhances our growth trajectory," said BMS's chief executive, Chris Boerner.
