Oncodesign, a Dijon, France-based biotechnology company focused on cancer and other serious illnesses with no known effective treatment, has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb to discover, develop and commercialize novel macrocyclic compounds.

The collaboration is based on Oncodesign’s platform of small macrocycles, Nanocyclix, and also will engage the advanced oncology pharmacology models at Oncodesign for cancer applications: Predict, Chi-mice and Pharmimage. The collaboration will potentially include multiple therapeutic areas and involve phenotypic cell-based approaches.

The goal of the collaboration is to generate novel Nanocyclix-based compounds for targets of interest to Bristol-Myers Squibb. The small macrocycles are highly potent and selective and have favorable characteristics allowing knowledge driven optimization beyond what is typically possible with conventional molecular designs.

Oncodesign will be primarily responsible for hit to lead and lead optimization up to the candidate selection stage for oncology targets and potentially for certain non-oncology targets. Bristol-Myers Squibb will be solely responsible for completing preclinical and clinical development of all products arising from the collaboration and for their commercialization globally.

Oncodesign will receive an upfront payment of $3 million and research-, development- and regulatory-based milestone payments of up to $80 million per target. In addition, Oncodesign is eligible to receive tiered royalties and sales-based milestones for each product resulting from the collaboration.

“We are excited to have reached this agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb, one of the most innovative biopharmaceutical companies today. This strategic collaboration is by far the largest one we have entered into up to now; it will allow us to fully exploit the potential of our technology platforms in both chemistry and biology. In addition to advancing our internal and already partnered programs, this new collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb may generate new treatment options for patients that have no solutions today—and that is what we are here for,” said Dr. Philippe Genne, founder and CEO of Oncodesign.