BMS Divests Investigational HIV Assets to ViiV

Bristol-Myers Squibb has entered two agreements with ViiV Healthcare to divest its pipeline of investigational HIV medicines in various stages of development, for $350 million upfront with potential development and regulatory milestone payments of as much as $518 million for clinical assets and as much as $587 million for discovery and preclinical programs. The divestiture is expected to be completed in 1H16, subject to customary closing conditions.
 
Once products are approved and commercialized, ViiV Healthcare will pay tiered royalties and sales-based milestones of as much as $750 million for each asset and as much as $700 million for each discovery program.  
 
These transactions are part of BMS’ strategic focus, including the decision to discontinue its discovery efforts in virology announced in June. Approximately 20 BMS employees are being offered the opportunity to transfer to ViiV Healthcare.
 
BMS’ clinical HIV assets include an attachment inhibitor (BMS-663068), currently in Phase III as a therapeutic option for heavily treatment-experienced patients, and a maturation inhibitor (BMS-955176), currently being investigated in Phase IIb development for treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced patients. The pipeline also includes active preclinical and discovery stage programs.
 
“Bristol-Myers Squibb has been committed to the HIV community for almost three decades, contributing significantly to the science and to the transformation in the treatment of this disease,” said Francis Cuss, chief scientific officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “Given the remaining unmet medical needs in HIV, Bristol-Myers Squibb continued its discovery of novel treatment approaches and the agreements with ViiV Healthcare now put the development of these potentially first-in-class compounds into the hands of a global specialist company exclusively dedicated to finding new medicines for people living with HIV.”
 
The agreements do not include BMS’ marketed HIV medicines, including Reyataz, Evotaz, Sustiva and Atripla.