SINGAPORE & PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Singapore, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced an innovative strategic partnership allowing for the rapid development of BMS-777607, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s investigational small molecule inhibitor of the MET receptor tyrosine kinase for treatment of solid tumors. This creative approach will accelerate the delivery of clinical proof-of-concept by leveraging the complementary strengths of an Asia-based drug development company and a global biopharmaceutical company.
Under the terms of the agreement, ASLAN will receive exclusive rights to develop and commercialize BMS-777607 in China, Australia, Korea, Taiwan and other selected Asian countries while Bristol-Myers Squibb retains exclusive rights in the rest of the world. ASLAN will run and fund development of BMS-777607 under a pre-agreed development program that will initially target gastric cancer and lung cancer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“This ground-breaking partnership demonstrates how a leading Asian drug development company can work together with a global biopharmaceutical company to accelerate drug development and conduct early clinical studies in Asia in areas of significant unmet need,” said Dr. Carl Firth, CEO of ASLAN.
“As part of our biopharma strategy, Bristol-Myers Squibb seeks to seed companies in key markets with promising investigational medicines of continued interest to Bristol-Myers Squibb,” said Francis Cuss, senior vice president, Research, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “Dubbed our Oyster strategy, under this type of agreement partners like ASLAN run and fund early development, working closely with Bristol-Myers Squibb, to produce high-quality data that may be used to further develop and commercialize the medicine worldwide. We are pleased to be working with ASLAN to quickly further our understanding of this oncology compound for use in treating solid tumors.”
About ASLAN
ASLAN Pharmaceuticals is an Asia-enabled pharmaceutical company that develops novel medicines for global markets, headquartered in Singapore. ASLAN licenses preclinical and early clinical compounds from global pharmaceutical companies, focusing on oncology, respiratory and inflammation diseases, and uses the high quality and efficient development resources available across Asia to progress the drugs through clinical development. For more information, please visit www.aslanpharma.com.
About Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. For more information, please visit www.bms.com or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bmsnews.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, regarding the research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Among other risks, there can be no guarantee that the compound described in this release will move from early stage development into full product development, that clinical trials of this compound will support a regulatory filing, or that the compound will receive regulatory approval or become a commercially successful product. Nor is there any guarantee that the transaction described in this release will receive the necessary regulatory approvals to close. Forward-looking statements in the press release should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect Bristol-Myers Squibb’s business, particularly those identified in the cautionary factors discussion in Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Bristol-Myers Squibb undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.