Bristol-Myers Squibb has terminated a collaboration with Medivir on a preclinical HIV compound the companies were developing.
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The compound, MIV-170, did not meet the profile desired by Bristol-Myers Squibb, according to the company. MIV-170 belongs to a group of polymerase inhibitors that Medivir’s subsidiary, Medivir HIV Franchise AB, has already stopped developing.
“Everyone is aware of the obvious risks in early pharmaceutical development. MIV-170 has not yet reached clinical development and statistically half of all pharmaceutical projects fail in this early pre clinical development phase. However, the license agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb has already provided Medivir with payments that by far exceed Medivir’s investments in the project,” said the CEO of Medivir HIV Franchise AB, professor Bo Oberg.
Medivir said that the collaboration termination will not materially affect the company. Medivir added that its focus is now entirely on the mature projects Hepatit C-PI (Phase I), cathepsin K (Phase I) and Lipsovir (Phase III), for which data will be available later this year.