The collaboration is focused on identifying biomarkers in the field of systemic lupus erythematosus for clinical diagnostic purposes associated with the clinical development of Orencia, a Bristol-Myers Squibb drug approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Bristol-Myers Squibb will make an upfront payment to XDx in addition to milestone payments upon the successful achievement of specific R&D objectives. XDx will receive commercial rights to certain diagnostic applications resulting from the collaboration.
Pierre Cassigneul, president and CEO of XDx, said: “We are pleased to be working with our new partners at Bristol-Myers Squibb and we intend to continue leveraging our R&D, clinical, and bioinformatics capabilities through partnerships to further demonstrate the utility of our innovative biomarker identification technologies and diagnostic work in autoimmune disease.”