Exelixis, Bristol-Meyers to collaborate on development of drugs for cardiovascular, metabolic disorders

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Dec. 6 - Exelixis Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. announced a collaboration to discover, develop and commercialize novel therapies targeted against the Liver X Receptor, a nuclear hormone receptor implicated in a variety of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders.

Under the collaboration, which will become effective upon antitrust clearance, the companies will jointly identify drug candidates that are ready for studies that could enable an Investigational New Drug Application, according to a news release.

Bristol-Myers Squibb will undertake further preclinical development and would be responsible for clinical development, regulatory, manufacturing and sales/marketing activities for such compounds, officials said.

Terms of the agreement include an upfront payment from Bristol-Myers Squibb of $17.5 million to Exelixis and will provide research and development funding of about $10 million per year for an initial two years, officials said.

Exelixis said it also may receive prespecified development and regulatory milestones totaling about $140 million per product for up to two products from the collaboration, as well as sales milestones and royalties on sales of products commercialized under the collaboration.

Exelixis, which has expertise in the field of nuclear receptors, said it has identified proprietary Liver X Receptor agonist drug candidates that are highly potent, selective and efficacious in animal models of atherosclerosis. Exelixis said its lead compounds further display excellent pharmacokinetic profiles and a broad safety margin in multiple animal models.

"We are very excited about combining the strengths of our two organizations. We have worked together productively in the past and we look forward to successfully combining our expertise in drug discovery and early biology with the proven capabilities of Bristol-Myers-Squibb in developing and commercializing important therapies for cardiovascular disease," George A. Scangos, president and chief executive officer of Exelixis, said in the release.

Exelixis is a South San Francisco, Calif., biotechnology company dedicated to the development of novel therapeutics and has a gene-to-drug platform with a proprietary drug pipeline focusing on cancer and metabolism.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a New York City pharmaceutical and related health-care products company.

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