Bristol Myers Squibb and insitro first partnered in 2020 to develop induced pluripotent stem cell models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Last December, BMS exercised its option for an ALS target.
Almost five years to the day they first linked up, Bristol Myers Squibb is extending its ongoing partnership with AI specialist insitro, using the biotech’s chemistry platform to design novel drugs against a previously identified amyotrophic lateral sclerosis target.
Under the terms of the extended agreement, BMS will pay up to $20 million to add one more year to an October 2020 contract between the two companies, which would have otherwise ended this month without Tuesday’s deal. Insitro could also receive more than $2 billion in discovery, development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus royalties on products that reach the market.
The initial partnership agreement five years ago leveraged insitro’s AI-powered platform to create induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). For $50 million upfront, BMS gained the option to choose targets identified through this approach to take into the clinic.
That opportunity came in December last year, when the pharma announced that it has chosen one ALS target identified and validated by insitro, triggering a $25 million milestone payment to the biotech.
Tuesday’s extension will give the partners some more time to work on this target through insitro’s ChemML technology, an end-to-end small-molecule discovery and optimization platform that likewise uses AI and machine learning to facilitate and accelerate this process.
BMS has been spending of late to keep its pipeline fresh. Last week, the company bought cell therapy company Orbital Therapeutics for $1.5 billion, getting a lead asset targeting autoimmune disorders. In June, the company, through its radiopharma subsidiary RayzeBio, partnered with Philochem to the tune of $350 million upfront and $1.35 billion in biobucks to work on prostate cancer.
Also in June, BMS put more than $11 billion on the line to partner with BioNTech on a solid tumor bispecific antibody. And in March, BMS scooped up its cell therapy partner 2seventy bio, with which it produces the cell therapy Abecma, for $286 million.
