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news.Exelixis, a biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases, has signed two new collaboration agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS).
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Under the first agreement, Exelixis will grant to BMS an exclusive license to its small-molecule TGR5 agonist program including backups.
Under the second agreement, the companies will collaborate to discover, optimize and characterize small-molecule ROR antagonists.
The companies have also made minor amendments to their XL281 and liver X receptor (LXR) agreements.
Finally, under the companies’ cancer collaboration agreement, Exelixis has opted to exercise its right to opt out of further co-development of XL139 and is expected to receive an accelerated milestone payment.
As per the terms of the new agreements, BMS is expected to make a combined initial payment of $60m to Exelixis, which will be eligible for potential development and approval milestone payments of up to $250m on TGR5 and $255m on the ROR antagonists.
Exelixis will also be eligible for combined sales performance milestones and royalties on net sales of products from each of the TGR5 and ROR programs.
BMS is expected to receive an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialise small molecule TGR5 agonists and ROR antagonists.
Under the TGR5 agreement, BMS will have sole responsibility for research, development, manufacturing and commercialisation, while under the ROR agreement, BMS and Exelixis will collaborate on ROR antagonist programs up to a pre-clinical transition point and then BMS will have sole responsibility for the further research, development, manufacture and commercialisation.
Exelixis said that it is granting rights to the ROR program in exchange for BMS waiving rights to receive a third investigational new drug (IND) candidate as agreed to under a collaboration signed in 2006 between the two companies in the area of oncology.
After Exelixis opts-out of further co-development of XL139, BMS is expected to receive an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialise, and will have sole responsibility for the further development, manufacture, and commercialisation of the compound.
Exelixis president and CEO Michael Morrissey said that those transactions leverage their discovery expertise with the development expertise of BMS in inflammation and metabolic diseases, and provide important additional resources for them to continue their focus on their clinical stage development pipeline.