Bristol-Myers Squibb and Five Prime Therapeutics To Develop Drugs For Cancer

US-based Pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, is expanding its collaboration with Five Prime Therapeutics to develop antibody-based drug candidates into approved medicines for cancer and other conditions.

The key goal is to develop combinations of drugs from the two companies that are more effective together than separately, particularly in the hot new field of immuno-oncology.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Suspends Development of Experimental Hepatitis C Drug
American pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced the immediate suspension of the development of its experimental hepatitis C drug.

New York-based Bristol-Myers will gain exclusive worldwide rights to resulting drugs by taking over all costs of testing, applying for regulatory approval and marketing. It's also adding development of drugs for rheumatoid arthritis and a rare, sometimes life-threatening joint disorder called PVNS to the deal.

Five Prime is creating drugs that use a different mechanism for this than Opdivo and Yervoy, Bristol-Myers' pricey biologic drugs approved to treat advanced melanoma.

Under the deal, Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay Five Prime $350 million. In addition to the upfront sum, Five Prime will be eligible to receive more than $1.3 billion in development and regulatory milestone payments as well as royalties.

Bristol-Myers and Johnson & Johnson to Study Combination Therapy for Hepatitis C
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. will collaborate with a unit of Johnson & Johnson to study a potential combination therapy for chronic hepatitis C.

Source-Medindia

Bristol-Myers' Kidney Transplant Drug Nulojix Receives FDA Green Signal
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Bristol-Myers' Nulojix, which is a drug that prevents organ rejection in kidney transplant patients.

For Treating Advanced Melanoma, New Cancer Drug Shows Promise
Researchers report that a new drug in preliminary tests has shown promising results with very manageable side effects for treating patients with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.