Biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed yesterday to acquire US-based cancer treatment developer Flexus Biosciences in a deal that could be worth up to $1.25bn.
Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay $800m upfront and up to $450m in development milestones. The acquisition will grant an exit to Celgene, the pharmaceutical firm that participated in a series B round for Flexus in December last year which brought the company’s total equity funding to $38m.
The series B round also featured Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm that incubated Flexus, and VC firm The Column Group.
The deal will give Bristol-Myers Squibb access to F001287, Flexus’ lead preclinical small molecule tumour enzyme inhibitor, as well as the rest of the company’s inhibitor discovery programme.
Francis Cuss, chief scientific officer for Bristol-Myers Squibb, said: “Bristol-Myers Squibb is committed to leading scientific advances in immuno-oncology and our acquisition of Flexus will expand our innovative pipeline with an important approach to enhancing immune responses in cancer.”
The transaction has been approved by the boards of both companies, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.