Due to Bristol Myers Squibb’s portfolio prioritization efforts, Eisai is taking back an antibody-drug conjugate that they originally teamed up on in 2021.
Eisai will now develop and commercialize the ADC alone, known as farletuzumab ecteribulin (FZEC). It’s a combination of a folate receptor antibody (FRα) and the chemotherapy Halaven.
In the original deal announced in June 2021, Bristol Myers paid $650 million, with $200 million of that toward Eisai’s R&D efforts for shared global rights. The deal included up to $2.45 billion in future milestones and royalties, and the companies planned to jointly develop and sell the drug in the US, EU, UK, Russia, Japan, China and other Asia-Pacific countries.
Now, Eisai will also hand back a part of the original $200 million R&D payment that it hasn’t used yet.
Eisai said in a Monday announcement that it considered the ADC a “high priority” and would accelerate its development “with the hope to deliver it to patients as early as possible.”
The drug is currently in three trials: one by Eisai, a Phase 1/2 study for solid tumors; Bristol Myers’ Phase 2 studies in ovarian, peritoneal and fallopian tube cancers; and a third in non-small cell lung cancer.
Bristol Myers announced in April that it was cutting around 12 programs from its pipeline as part of its $1.5 billion cost-cutting measure, with the company saying it would either discontinue or externalize. The company’s efforts to cut expenses included about 2,200 job cuts.
Genmab is also going after the same ADC target, announcing in April that it was paying $1.8 billion in cash to buy ProfoundBio and its ADC portfolio. The ADC portfolio includes an ADC in a Phase 2 trial for ovarian cancer and other solid tumors that express the folate receptor alpha.