Dive Brief:
- Bristol-Myers Squibb is pursuing a deal for Promedior Inc. worth up to $1.25 billion that would give the company access to Promedior's lead drug, PRM-151.
- PRM-151 is being evaluated as a treatment for two types of fibrosis—idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and myelofibrosis. There is currently only one approved drug for the latter condition, which is designated as a rare disease—Incyte's Jakafi.
- BMS currently has four fibrosis drugs in its pipeline.
Dive Insight:
Clearly, fibrosis is an important therapeutic area of interest for BMS, which plans to intitiate mid-stage trials for PRM-151 in the next few weeks. The deal is structured so that BMS will pay $150 million upfront to Promedior, after which the trials will start.
BMS will be able to exercise its right to buy Promedior after completion of either of the two studies (one for each proposed indication). For its part, Promedior is backed by several healthcare investors, including Shire, and seems well positioned to move forward with BMS on this deal.
Jakafi brought in sales of $258 million in the first six months of 2015.