Yahoo Finance Celldex climbs on Bristol-Myers partnership
Celldex surges after saying it will work with Bristol-Myers Squibb on cancer drug combination
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Celldex Therapeutics climbed Wednesday after the company said it will work with Bristol-Myers Squibb to study a combination of two cancer drugs the companies are developing.
Celldex said it will get $5 million from Bristol-Myers Squibb and will start a clinical trial of a drug regimen combining its drug varlilumab with Bristol-Myers Squibb's nivolumab. Both drugs are part of a new class of treatments called PD-1, or programmed death, therapies. The drugs allow the body's immune system to target hidden tumor cells.
The companies will share development costs. The Needham, Massachusetts, company plans to start the trial during the fourth quarter.
Celldex shares advanced $3.15, or 25.4 percent, to $15.55 in afternoon trading. Bristol-Myers shares picked up 8 cents to $52.27.
The companies are also reworking the terms of a partnership Celldex had with Medarex, a company Bristol-Myers Squibb acquired in 2009. They said some milestone payments due to Celldex were waived and royalty rates were reduced. If Celldex wants to license varlilumab to an outside company, Bristol-Myers Squibb will have the first opportunity to negotiate a deal.
Celldex does not have any approved drugs. Bristol-Myers' cancer drugs include the leukemia treatment Sprycel, Yervoy for melanoma, and Erbitux, which is approved as a treatment for cancers of the head and neck and for colorectal cancer that has spread elsewhere in the body. In the first quarter, combined sales of those three drugs grew 15 percent to $782 million.
