QDIS Blog

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Exelixis have reached an agreement to develop cancer drugs.

Exelixis, Bristol-Myers ink partnership:

BMS will use Exelixis’s drug discovery platform to come up with potential drug candidates. The deal involves $60 million in upfront payments and BMS can choose up to three candidates for $20 million each. the companies would co-develop and commercialize those compounds with Exelixis having the right to withdraw their co-development and co-promotion and would then only receive milestone and royalties instead of profit sharing.

I think this continues to show to me how desperate big pharma is for drug candidates. however, I do think BMS is smart in developing a partnership rather than a merger. I have said before that one of the problems with mergers is that it tends to stifle the innovation of small companies once they become a small part of a larger corporation. By making a deal, Exelixis gets to continue on its way with a good potential upside and BMS gets to choose a few good drug candidates to add to its pipeline. Also, since this is focus on cancer drugs it plays into one of BMS’s strengths.

Technorati Tags: Bristol-Myers Squibb, drug development, pharmaceutical deals, Exelixis

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