Bris­tol-My­ers teams up with Op­di­vo mak­er Ono Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal on new I/O pro­grams

Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb $BMY has inked a li­cens­ing deal with long­time part­ner Ono Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal to de­vel­op mul­ti­ple tu­mor-fight­ing pro­grams.

BMS is pay­ing $40 mil­lion up­front, and in re­turn gets to de­vel­op, man­u­fac­ture, and com­mer­cial­ize ONO-4578 glob­al­ly ex­cept in Japan, South Ko­rea, Tai­wan, Chi­na, and As­so­ci­a­tion of South­east Asian Na­tions coun­tries.

ONO-4578 is Ono’s Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) re­cep­tor 4 (EP4) an­tag­o­nist. Re­searchers say that PGE2 sup­press­es tu­mor im­mu­ni­ty and pro­motes tu­mor growth, and pre­clin­i­cal da­ta sug­gest its mod­u­la­tion may com­ple­ment an­ti-PD-1 and an­ti-CT­LA-4 ther­a­pies — which would make it a good fit for Op­di­vo and Yer­voy.

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