Dive Brief:
- Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) has acquired Flexus Biosciences for up to $1.25 billion and signed a $339 million research agreement with Rigel Pharmaceuticals. Both deals involve cancer immunotherapy.
- BMS has sold off other units in other therapeutic areas to focus more on oncology, with a specific focus on cancer immunotherapy.
- The company has also fielded adversity in other therapeutic categories. For example, BMS recently lost special designation status for daclatasvir, which is in late-stage clinical development for hepatitis C, thanks to the emergence of next-gen meds like Harvoni and Viekira Pak.
Dive Insight:
BMS is part of a growing group of companies—including Eli Lilly, Immunocore, Merck, Advaxis, AstraZeneca, Juno Therapeutics, Intrexa, and Ziopharma, just to name a few—that are focused on cancer immunotherapy R&D.
The Flexus deal is particularly promising as it gives BMS full rights to Flexus's FOO1287 immunotherapy, which will move into clinical trials later this year.