Tranzyme Seals Agreement With Bristol-Myers Squibb

Tranzyme Pharma (Tranzyme ) has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb, to discover, develop and commercialise macrocyclic compounds directed against targets of interest to Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The collaboration is expected to deploy Tranzyme’s proprietary drug discovery technology, Macrocyclic Template Chemistry (MATCH), to identify and develop new drug candidates for multiple targets in diverse therapeutic areas.

As per the terms of the agreement, Tranzyme will be primarily responsible for early lead discovery, and Bristol-Myers Squibb will take primary responsibility for optimising the identified lead compounds. Bristol-Myers Squibb will be solely responsible for completing preclinical and clinical development of all products arising from the collaboration, and for their commercialisation globally.

Reportedly, Bristol-Myers Squibb will provide an upfront payment of $10m and an additional $3 to $6m in research funding to Tranzyme for an initial two-year term. Tranzyme will receive further funding if the agreement is extended beyond the initial term.

In addition, Tranzyme is eligible to receive development and regulatory milestones and tiered royalties for each product resulting from the collaboration. Total milestone payments under the agreement, excluding royalties, could reach up to approximately $80m for each target program.

Vipin Garg, president and CEO of Tranzyme, said: “We are excited to be joining forces with Bristol-Myers Squibb; we believe they will be an ideal partner to exploit the versatility of our proprietary chemistry.

“In addition to Tranzyme’s current focus on gastrointestinal and metabolic disease targets, MATCH has broad applicability in the treatment of other diseases that involve hormones, peptides, ion channels or protein-protein interaction pathways.”