BMS Deals Set to Boost Company's Oncology Pipeline

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. announced two deals valued at a total of about $1.6 billion that will further strengthen the drugmaker’s oncology pipeline.

The deals with Flexus Biosciences Inc. and Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. will add to Bristol’s portfolio of treatments that use the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. New York-based Bristol has shed units in other areas to focus heavily on a new generation of oncology treatments.

Bristol agreed to acquire closely held Flexus in a deal valued at as much as $1.25 billion, assuming certain development milestones are met, the companies said in a statement Monday. The deal gives Bristol full rights to Flexus’s F001287 immunotherapy, which the company plans to move into human trials in the second half of the year. Current shareholders of Flexus, which is based in San Carlos, California, will be part of a spinoff that will retain its earlier-stage immunotherapies.

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Source: Bloomberg