Gekkowolf. I am sorry if you are offended by my re-quoting you....

Gekkowolf.

I am sorry if you are offended by my re-quoting you.

The topic of early stage deals has been mention on this board quite a bit. I think fierce biotech have quite a few articles about it.

It is whats happening. Big pharm needs to be ahead in the game, and one way to do that is to get the next thing, not just the proven current thing imho.

This is just the big end of town. There are plenty more:

Shire (Baxalta) and Symphogen

Value: Up to €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) for Symphogen
Date announced: January 4, 2016
Summary: Companies agreed to develop Symphogen’s portfolio of early-stage immuno-oncology programs. Companies agreed to advance new treatments against six undisclosed checkpoint targets, with the first program to enter clinical studies in 2017.

Shire (Baxalta) and Precision BioSciences

Value: Up to $1.7 billion for Precision, including $105 million upfront
Date announced: February 25, 2016
Summary: Companies agreed to develop allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapies, by bringing together immuno-oncology candidates of Baxalta (since acquired by Shire) with Precision’s ARCUS genome-editing platform technology.
Baxalta and Precision agreed to develop CAR-T therapies for up to six undisclosed targets addressing areas of major unmet need in multiple unspecified cancers. Precision agreed to oversee early-stage research activities up to Phase II, after which Baxalta has the exclusive right to opt in for late-stage development and commercialization. However, Precision also has the right to participate in the development and commercialization of any licensed products resulting from the collaboration through a 50/50 co-development and co-promotion option in the U.S.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Five Prime Therapeutics

Value: Up to $1.74 billion for Five Prime, including $350 million upfront
Date announced: October 15, 2015
Summary: BMS agreed to co-develop and co-commercialize Five Prime’s colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) antibody program, led by the Phase I cancer/immunology compound cabiralizumab (FPA008). BMS agreed to oversee development and manufacturing of cabiralizumab for all indications, subject to an option by Five Prime to conduct and pay for future studies to support approval of cabiralizumab in pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS), and cabiralizumab in combination with Five Prime’s internal pipeline assets in immuno-oncology.

Servier and Pieris Pharmaceuticals

Value: Up to €1.7 billion ($1.8 billion) for Pieris, including €30 million ($32 million) upfront
Date announced: January 5, 2017
Summary: Servier will partner with Pieris to co-develop Pieris’ PRS-332 and up to seven other immuno-oncology bispecific drug candidates. Companies agreed to initially pursue five bispecific therapeutic programs. These are led by the preclinical bispecific checkpoint inhibitor PRS-332, a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)-targeting therapy, and include four immuno-oncology bispecific drug candidates that may combine antibodies from the Servier portfolio with one or more of Pieris’ Anticalin^® proteins. Pieris retains all U.S. commercial rights, with Servier having commercial rights elsewhere in the world. Servier and Pieris also agreed to allow for expansion of their collaboration by up to three additional therapeutic programs.

Sanofi and Regeneron

Value: Up to $2.17 billion for Regeneron, including $640 million upfront
Date announced: July 28, 2015
Summary: Sanofi and Regeneron agreed to jointly develop REGN2810, a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor then in Phase I, and launch clinical trials in 2016 with new therapeutic candidates based on ongoing preclinical programs. The partners committed to spend $325 million each toward developing REGN2810.

Celgene and Jounce Therapeutics

Value: Up to $2.6 billion-plus for Jounce, including $225 million upfront, and a $36 million equity investment by Celgene
Date announced: July 19, 2016
Summary: Celgene received options to develop and commercialize jointly cancer immunotherapies that include Jounce’s lead candidate JTX-2011, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) expected to enter clinical trials by year’s end, and other cancer immunotherapies. Celgene gained options from Jounce for up to four of its early-stage programs to be selected from a defined pool of B cell-, regulatory T cell-, and tumor-associated macrophage targets emerging from the Jounce Translational Science Platform; and an additional option to share JTX-4014, Jounce’s PD-1 product candidate, equally with Jounce. The collaboration agreement has an initial term of four years, which may be extended up to three additional years.

Merck KGaA and Pfizer

Value: Up to $2.85 billion for Merck KGaA, including $895 million upfront
Date announced: November 17, 2014
Summary: Merck KGaA agreed to jointly develop and commercialize its PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor MSB0010718C [since renamed Bavencio® (avelumab) and also known as PF-06834635] with Pfizer, both as a single agent and in various combinations with the companies’ oncology therapies.

Pfizer, Cellectis, and Servier

Value: Up to $2.885 billion for Cellectis, including $80 million upfront
Date announced: June 18, 2014
Summary: Pfizer and Cellectis agreed to develop Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) cancer immunotherapies directed at select targets using the French biotech’s CAR-T platform technology. Pfizer has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize CAR-T cancer therapies directed at a total of 15 targets of its choosing. Both companies agreed to work together on preclinical research for four of 12 additional targets to be selected by Cellectis, with Pfizer having the right of first refusal to the four. In return, Pfizer agreed to fund R&D costs for the 15 targets, and a portion of R&D costs associated with four other Cellectis-selected targets. Cellectis is eligible for payments tied to achieving development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments of up to $185 million per product resulting from the Pfizer-selected targets, and tiered royalties on net sales of any products commercialized by Pfizer.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and CytomX Therapeutics

Value: Up to $2.888 billion for CytomX, including $200 million upfront ⁽¹⁾
Date announced: March 20, 2017
Summary: In expansion of up-to-$1.242 billion, up-to-four-target cancer immunotherapy collaboration announced May 27, 2014, BMS and CytomX agreed to discover up to eight additional targets—six oncology targets, two non-oncology—using CytomX’s Probody™ drug discovery platform. CytomX granted BMS exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize the eight targets. In return, BMS agreed to pay CytomX $200 million upfront, plus research funding, and up to $448 million per candidate tied to achieving development, regulatory and sales milestones, plus tiered royalties from the mid-single digits to low-double digits on net sales of each product commercialized by BMS.

Merck & Co. and Ablynx

Value: €5.78 billion ($6.4 billion)
Date announced: July 22, 2015
Summary: In an up-to-€4.08 billion (about $4.5 billion) expansion of an up-to-€1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) immuno-oncology collaboration to address additional checkpoint modulator targets, announced February 3, 2014, the companies agreed to discover and develop up to 12 additional cancer drugs based on single-domain antibody fragments, or Nanobodies^®, through preclinical proof-of-concept. After that, Merck & Co. will have the option to advance specific lead candidates. Merck will also oversee clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization of any products resulting from the collaboration, which grew to 17 Nanobodies programs.

cheers