ViiV Healthcare, a global specialist HIV company with GSK, Pfizer Inc. and Shionogi Limited as shareholders, today announced it has agreed to purchase Bristol-Myers Squibb’s late stage HIV R&D assets. In a separate deal, ViiV Healthcare has agreed to acquire Bristol-Myers Squibb’s HIV portfolio of pre-clinical and discovery stage research assets. Each deal is subject to clearance by the regulatory authorities and is expected to complete in early 2016.
These two deals strengthen ViiV Healthcare’s long-term commitment to people living with HIV, as well as its long-term growth and sustainability, by complementing its current portfolio of existing and investigational treatments. If approved, the late stage assets would provide novel mode of action medicines which would be first to market in their class. The acquisition of the discovery programmes further bolsters ViiV Healthcare’s R&D potential by bringing in not only new assets, but also expertise and capabilities.
“With these two deals, we are delighted to acquire these promising and pioneering research programmes. We look forward to developing them with the aim of bringing new treatment options to people living with HIV,” said Dominique Limet, CEO, ViiV Healthcare. “These transactions strengthen our continued growth as a business and our R&D leadership and expertise.”
The late stage R&D assets include an attachment inhibitor (BMS-663068) investigated in Phase III as a breakthrough therapy candidate for heavily treatment-experienced patients. The other two assets are maturation inhibitors. The first one (BMS-955176) is in Phase IIb research for treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced patients, with the second (BMS-986173) being a back-up candidate. A transitional services agreement will be in place to manage the transfer of the assets following completion of the deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb.
The acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s HIV discovery programmes includes a novel biologic treatment with a triple mechanism of action (BMS-986197), a maturation inhibitor, an allosteric integrase inhibitor and a capsid inhibitor. As part of the agreement, a number of Bristol-Myers Squibb drug discovery employees will be offered the opportunity to transfer to ViiV Healthcare. Bristol-Myers Squibb will continue to provide some support to the discovery programmes pursuant to a service agreement.
The late-stage asset purchase comprises an upfront payment of $317 million, followed by development and first commercial sale milestones of up to $518M, and tiered royalties on sales. The purchase of preclinical and discovery stage research assets comprises an upfront payment of $33 million, followed by development and first commercial sales milestones of up to $587M, and further consideration contingent on future sales performance.
