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Bristol Myers agrees up to $11.1 billion deal with BioNTech to shake up cancer immunotherapy
By Michael Erman and Ludwig Burger - 6/2/2025
By Ludwig Burger and Michael Erman
(Reuters) -Bristol Myers Squibb has agreed to pay up to $11.1 billion to partner with Germany's BioNTech and develop the latter's next-generation cancer immunotherapy, which could take on rival Merck & Co's best-selling drug Keytruda.
The deal, which includes $3.5 billion in unconditional payments, underpins BioNTech's ambition to continue a costly long-term focus on experimental cancer treatments and show that its success as Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine partner was not a one-off achievement.
It also underscores a push across the pharma sector to master a new dual mechanism of action in oncology that activates the immune system - similar to an established drug class including Merck & Co's Keytruda - but which also cuts a tumour's blood supply.
BioNTech's German-listed shares surged 16.7% by 1236 GMT to a six-week high.
The two companies said in separate statements that the U.S. group will co-develop and co-commercialize BioNTech's drug, BNT327, for multiple solid tumour types.
BioNTech's CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin said the collaboration will serve "to accelerate and broadly expand BNT327’s development to fully realize its potential."
The companies said in presentation slides that Bristol Myers was bringing global networks in clinical development and manufacturing to the partnership, among other benefits.
BioNTech said in a statement that the partners were seeking to set a new standard of care in the cancer market segment, now dominated by so-called checkpoint inhibitors including Keytruda with $29.5 billion in 2024 sales.
Western drugmakers have struck a host of deals to win access to the new drug technology, known as PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibodies, which was pioneered in China.
Pfizer last month partnered with China's 3SBio, paying $1.25 billion upfront and up to another $4.8 billion depending on developmental achievements.
Merck & Co, whose Keytruda business is under threat from the sector's development push, in November last year licensed an early-stage cancer drug from China-based LaNova Medicines for up to $3.3 billion.
"We are now starting to see an industry vote of confidence in the differentiation of this novel mechanism," BMO Capital Markets analysts said in a note.
They welcomed BioNTech "partnering with a big pharma name to help manage a broad development plan and potential commercialization".
Shares in Instil Bio, which is working with China's ImmuneOnco on a similar compound, soared 24% in U.S. trade on Monday.
Summit Therapeutics and China's Akeso have formed another partnership in the development race with a drug candidate called ivonescimab.
BioNTech took full ownership of BNT327 through the acquisition of China's Biotheus earlier this year for $800 million upfront and up to $150 million contingent on development achievements.
It previously held certain rights in the drug under a 2023 collaboration deal.
In addition to an initial payment of $1.5 billion, Bristol plans to pay BioNTech $2 billion in non-contingent anniversary payments through 2028. BioNTech may also earn up to $7.6 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones, Bristol said.
The companies will share global profits and losses from the drug equally, and joint development and manufacturing costs will also be shared on a 50/50 basis, with some exceptions.
BNT327 is being tested as a first-line treatment in extensive stage small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. More than 1,000 patients have been treated with the drug to date.
(Reporting by Michael Erman and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Bernadette Baum and Susan Fenton)