U.S. Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announced on the 2nd (local time) that it has signed a technology transfer agreement with Germany's BYON worth up to $11.1 billion (approximately 15.2 trillion won) to develop next-generation cancer therapeutics.
Under the contract, BMS is set to pay BYON an advance payment of $1.5 billion (2 trillion won) and an unconditional performance bonus of $2 billion (2.7 trillion won) by 2028. BYON can receive up to $7.6 billion (approximately 10.4 trillion won) in milestone fees.
The new drug candidate in which BMS has invested is BNT327, a dual antibody that targets the protein PD-L1, which cancer cells use to disguise themselves as normal cells, and the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) that promotes tumor growth. It blocks PD-L1 to help immune cells, T cells, recognize and attack cancer cells while simultaneously inhibiting VEGF-A to cut off the blood and oxygen supply necessary for cancer cell growth.
This is currently being developed as a first-line treatment for both small-cell and non-small-cell lung cancers and has completed administration to 1,000 patients in clinical trials. Small-cell lung cancer is classified as small-cell lung cancer when the cancer cells are small and non-small-cell when they are large. Non-small-cell cancer accounts for 70 to 80% of all lung cancers.
BYON acquired BNT327, which had been developed by the Chinese biotechnology corporation Biotheus. BYON announced its plan to acquire Biotheus in November last year and completed the acquisition process in February this year.
BYON stated, "Partner companies are striving to present a new treatment standard in the cancer market dominated by so-called immune checkpoint inhibitors, including the world's best-selling cancer drug Keytruda."
Immune checkpoints are proteins that mark normal cells so that immune cells do not attack them. Cancer cells often exploit this. Immune checkpoint inhibitors prevent cancer cells from binding to the immune checkpoint, allowing them to be targeted again by immune cells. Notable immune checkpoint inhibitors include Keytruda from U.S. Merck (MSD), Opdivo and Yervoy from BMS, and Imfinzi from U.K. AstraZeneca (ASTK).
Meanwhile, recently, global pharmaceutical companies such as U.S. Pfizer and MSD have been investing in China's cancer new drug development technologies and corporations. Pfizer entered a partnership contract with China's 3SBio worth up to $4.8 billion (approximately 6 trillion won) last month, while MSD acquired cancer new drug candidates from China's LaNova Medicines for up to $3.3 billion (approximately 4 trillion won) in November last year.