Bristol-Myers, Celldex Announce Clinical Trial Collaboration - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) and Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (CLDX) announced they have entered into a clinical trial collaboration to evaluate the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of nivolumab, Bristol-Myers Squibb's investigational PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, and varlilumab, Celldex's CD27 targeting investigational antibody in a Phase 1/2 study. Nivolumab and varlilumab are part of a new class of cancer treatments known as immunotherapies that are designed to harness the body's own immune system to fight cancer through separate yet complementary mechanisms of action that result in T-cell mediated destruction of cancer cells.

The companies said, multiple tumor types will be explored in the study, which could potentially include non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic melanoma, ovarian, colorectal and squamous cell head and neck cancers.

Bristol-Myers Squibb will make a one-time payment of $5 million to Celldex and the parties will share development costs. Celldex will be responsible for conducting the Ph 1/2 study, which is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The parties have re-structured an existing agreement between Celldex and Medarex related to Celldex's CD27 program, and waived certain future milestone payments and reduced future royalty rates that would have been due from Celldex to Medarex. Medarex was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb in September of 2009.