Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay Nektar Therapeutics $1 billion to develop a cancer immunotherapy treatment — one of the largest deals ever inked for a single drug's development, reports Reuters.
Nektar will test its experimental drug, NKTR-214, in combination with Bristol-Myers' best-selling cancer drugs Opdivo and Yervoy. Research will focus on 20 cancer indications across nine different tumor types, ranging from melanoma to lung cancers.
Through the deal, Nektar is eligible to achieve an additional $1.78 billion in regulatory and sales milestone payments from Bristol-Myers. If the FDA approves NKTR-214, Nektar and Bristol-Myers would split global profits by 65 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
The companies expect to finalize the transaction in the second quarter of 2018.