Amphista enters two collaborations for protein degrading therapeutics

Amphista Therapeutics announces two partnerships with Merck Healthcare and Bristol Myers Squibb for targeted protein degradation (TPD) therapeutics worth a potential total of $2.1 billion.

Amphista Therapeutics, a company in the discovery and development of targeted protein degradation (TPD) therapeutics, announced a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bristol Myers Squibb and Amphista will work collaboratively to discover and develop small molecule protein degraders. Bristol Myers Squibb will be granted a global exclusive license to the degraders developed and will be responsible for further development and commercialisation activities. Amphista will receive a $30 million upfront payment, the potential for up to $1.25 billion in performance-based milestone payments and payment for a limited expansion of the collaboration, as well as royalties on global net sales of products. The closing of the transaction is subject to the parties obtaining regulatory clearances or approvals.

Nicola Thompson, CEO of Amphista, said, "Our collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb is a powerful validation of our advances in TPD research and the capabilities of our Eclipsys next-generation TPD platform. Combining our expertise with Bristol Myers Squibb's strong legacy and experience in the protein degradation space brings new promise to the potential of delivering more effective new treatments to patients seeking treatment options."  

TPD therapies are designed to use physiological mechanisms to remove pathogenic protein from the body, offering the potential to access many disease targets previously considered "undruggable". Amphista's technology is specifically designed to develop TPD therapeutics based on advanced mechanistic insights and chemistry approaches that enable the development of new protein degrading therapeutics.

"Bristol Myers Squibb continues to build its leadership and scientific expertise in the protein degradation space," said Rupert Vessey, M.A., B.M., B.Ch., FRCP, D.Phil., executive vice president, research & early development, Bristol Myers Squibb. "We look forward to collaborating with Amphista and using its TPD platform to potentially develop new targeted protein degradation therapies."