Bristol Myers Squibb has become the latest Big Pharma to tie up a biotech pact as we reach the year’s end, tapping Harbour BioMed for a multiyear research deal.
The new pact will see the companies team up to "advance and accelerate multi-specific antibody discovery programs," according to a Dec. 17 release. In exchange for this work, Harbour will be eligible to receive $90 million.
For candidates that progress further down the line, development and commercial milestones worth up to $1.035 billion are on the table, according to the release.
“This collaboration leverages our Harbour Mice fully human antibody technology platform, which facilitates the efficient discovery and development of innovative biologics with enhanced therapeutic potential,” Jingsong Wang, M.D., Ph.D., founder, chairman and CEO of Harbour, said in the release.
A key element to the deal also sees BMS able to tap into Harbour’s “established development capabilities,” namely by conducting early clinical trials in China, where Shanghai-based Harbour has an established research presence.
“By uniting the strengths of our platform with Bristol Myers Squibb’s expertise in drug discovery and development, we look forward to progressing these programs and delivering transformative therapies to patients worldwide,” Wang added.
This builds on several deals for Harbour with pharmas this year, including Otsuka Pharmaceutical paying out $47 million upfront for the ex-China rights to Harbour’s early-stage BCMAxCD3 bispecific candidate back in June. That deal came with $623 million biobucks attached, plus potential royalties on future net sales.
But by far its biggest was the potential $4.4 billion biobucks deal with AstraZeneca that also used its Harbour Mice platform.
BMS has also put several billion dollars on the table with its deals this year, including its massive bispecific tie-up with BioNTech in June and its $1.5 billion buyout of Orbital Therapeutics in October.
And as we reach the end of 2025, several Big Pharmas have found some spare cash ahead of the New Year for a host of deals over the past few weeks. Most recently this saw Roche’s Genentech unit pen a pact with Caris Life Sciences offering up to $1.1 billion in possible R&D, commercial and sales milestones, plus potential royalties for new cancer targets.
Earlier this week, Sanofi also teamed up with two separate biotechs, while Pfizer too signed a new deal with Adaptive Biotechnologies.