BMS abandons hep C, diabetes and neuroscience
pharmafile | November 11, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | BMS, HIV, diabetes, hep C
Bristol-Myers Squibb is admitting defeat in hepatitis C, diabetes and neuroscience and will abandon research in these areas in a shake-up of R&D.
Instead it will concentrate its attention on treatments which use the body’s immune system to combat cancer as research shifts towards what the US firm calls ‘a more speciality biopharma model’.
“We are focussing our R&D organisation on delivering the opportunities where the value is greatest to patients,” said BMS chief scientific officer Francis Cass.
Bloomberg suggests that BMS is going to abandon two neuroscience compounds it currently has in Phase I, quoting a company spokeswoman saying: “They are still being evaluated but we will likely be winding down those programmes.”
The report suggests up to 75 jobs will be lost.
And because BMS will not be looking for any new diabetes drugs, one analyst suggests that AstraZeneca could up its stake in the diabetes joint venture – which spawned Onglyza (saxagliptin) – between the two companies.
Reuters quotes Citi analyst Andrew Baum suggesting that BMS’s decision might mean that the US manufacturer would want to sell its share of the business outside the US.
BMS has insisted it will continue with existing plans for diabetes drugs Eliquis (apixaban), Sprycel (dasatinib), Orencia (abatacept), Erbitux (cetuximab), Baraclude (entecavir) and Reyataz (atazanavir sulfate)/Sustiva (efavirenz).
Cass said the company would be working on “driving near-term growth through our current late-stage portfolio and on ensuring the long-term growth of the company by evolving the disease areas and drug platforms on which we concentrate our research efforts”.
When it comes to R&D, BMS says that it will focus on areas of unmet medical need, including HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), heart failure, oncology, immunoscience and fibrotic diseases.
In particular the company will “increase investment in immuno-oncology, an area of significant opportunity, to realise the full potential of immunotherapy in certain cancers”.
Adam Hill
Related Content
European Commission approves HIV prevention injection
The European Commission (EC) has granted marketing authorisation for Gilead Science’s Yeytuo (lenacapavir), the first …
MetP Pharma releases positive data on intranasal semaglutide administration
MetP Pharma has released new data highlighting the advantages of its MetP technology in delivering …
AOTI diabetic foot care therapy to be used by NHS
Effective from September 2025, AOTI’s Topical Wound Oxygen (TWO2) therapy has been awarded inclusion in …
