Boston, MA 03/17/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Five Prime therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:FPRX) has announced it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY) for the discovery and development of immune-oncology therapies. The therapies will be directed towards identifying two undisclosed immune checkpoint pathways using Five Prime platform.
Bristol Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY) will use this collaboration to expand its existing Immune-oncology programs by identifying the most viable drug targets for research and development. Drugs candidates developed under the new partnership may be studied as single agents or a combination with Bristol Myers Squibb immune-oncology therapies.
The two companies note that immune-oncology has the potential to be the transformational makeweight in the treatment of cancer with Bristol Myers providing an extensive pipeline for the discovery of dedicated programs. President and Chief executive officer of Five Prime was thrilled of the partnership emphasizing that Bristol Myers is the undisputed leader in immune-oncology industry
Terms of the agreement
The collaboration will see Bristol Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY) acquiring exclusive worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of products directed towards protein targets identified by Five Prime. Bristol Myers is expected to make an upfront payment of $20 million and provide $9.5 million in research funding to Five Prime
Bristol Myers will also acquire 4.5% of Five Prime therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:FPRX)’s common stock is valued at $21 million at approximately 30% premium. The agreement also allows Five Prime to receive up to $300 million in funding for development regulatory and sales based milestone
The latest collaboration comes at the back of Five Prime also entering into an agreement with Adimap LLC aimed at discovering and optimizing therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for cancer immuno therapy. This agreement entails Adimap using its discovery platform for the identification of fully-human antibodies that Five Prime can use. The collaboration will enable Five Prime develop and commercialize antibodies.
Five Prime Public Offering
Five Prime therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:FPRX) carried out a successful public offering on February 12 in which it offered 3.45 million shares of its common stock that included 45000 sold upon full exercise of the underwriters. The total proceeds from the offering amounted to $43.13 million before discounts expenses and commissions. The Public offering saw Jefferies LLC BMO Capital Markets and wells Fargo act as book running managers.
