BMS Drops 240M For Codevelopment of 2 Exelixis Cancer Drugs

This post was commissioned on December 12, 2008, and it was categorized as License/Partnership.

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Friday, with the ink still wet from their 11/24 IND stage deal for a novel CDC7 program, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Exelixis announced a global collaboration covering molecules XL184 and XL281 for the treatment of cancer.

XL184 is a small molecule inhibitor of MET, VEGFR2 and RET that is currently in Phase III development for medullary thyroid cancer, while XL281 is a small molecule inhibitor of RAF kinase that is currently in Phase I development for the treatment of patients with advanced solid tumor malignancies.

Terms
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- Upfront: $195M in 2008 and $45M in 2009 ($240M total)
- Shared worldwide costs and profits on XL184 with copromote option in US
- If Exelixis opts out of co-dev, would get up to $295M in regulatory milestones and double digit royalties
- Eligible for development and regulatory milestones for up to $315M, sales milestones of $150M and double digit royalties on WW sales of XL281

XL184 provides a novel approach to the treatment of a variety of solid tumors where signaling through MET, VEGFR2 or RET plays an important role in dysregulated tumor growth and progression. XL184 has recently begun a Phase III clinical trial in medullary thyroid cancer, a disease in which RET mutations are found in a large proportion of patients. In addition, clinical trials to exploit the MET and VEGFR2 targeting of XL184 are ongoing in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and glioblastoma. Preclinically, XL184 also exhibits inhibitory activity for MET and VEGFR2 in a variety of breast, colon and brain tumor models.

XL281 is a novel small molecule designed to selectively inhibit RAF kinase, which lies immediately downstream of RAS and is a key component of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK kinase signaling pathway. The RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathway plays a key role in the transmission of growth-promoting signals downstream of receptor tyrosine kinases. Dysregulation of this pathway plays a pivotal role in the progression of many human tumors, and inhibition of the pathway may be useful in the treatment of cancer. Phase I trials with this molecule are underway in order to select a dose and schedule for Phase II disease-directed trials.

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This post was constructed by

Eben Tessari

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Eben is a highly caffeinated business development associate at a small, cash sensitive pharmaceutical company somewhere in Massachusetts. He enjoys cliche-less banter, compartmentalization, non-equilibrium thermodynamics and NPV analysis. Agree or disagree with what he's posted? He encourages comments.

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