Bristol-Myers Squibb is now in a worldwide strategic alliance with Korean firm OliPass to discover and develop therapeutics against multiple targets using OliPass' peptide nucleic acid (PNA) technology platform. OliPass uses its PNA technology to develop antisense medicines.
Per the alliance, BMS is making an upfront payment to OliPass and plans to provide research support payments to continue development of the technology. OliPass says it could receive additional payments once certain objectives have been completed, plus development milestones and royalties on the sales of each product licensed to BMS under the agreement, in addition to other milestones based on the level of licensed product sales.
OliPass' founder and CEO Shin Chung, Ph.D., said in a statement that this is the Korean firm's first collaboration with a major multinational pharmaceutical company. “This strategic alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb demonstrates that our innovative PNA platform has the potential to generate novel antisense therapeutics. We look forward to collaborating with Bristol-Myers Squibb to validate our platform and advance our unique PNA-based compounds into development,” he added.
