Molecular Templates Enters Collaboration With Bristol Myers Squibb for Cancer Treatment

New York – February 26, 2021 – Cooley advised clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Molecular Templates (MTEM) on its strategic research collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to discover and develop therapies designed for specific oncology targets. The collaboration will seek to discover new molecules utilizing MTEM’s next-generation engineered toxin body (ETB) platform. Lawyers Alison Freeman-Gleason and Kristy Brady led the Cooley team advising MTEM.

Under the terms of the agreement, MTEM will receive an upfront payment of $70 million and will be eligible to receive up to approximately $1.3 billion in near-term and development, regulatory and sales milestone payments as well as tiered royalty payments on future sales. 

“This collaboration provides further validation of our ETB platform while we continue to advance our wholly owned product pipeline to offer promising therapeutic options for patients,” Eric Poma, Molecular Templates’ chief executive and scientific officer, said in a news release.

MTEM will conduct research activities for the discovery of next generation ETBs – a new class of targeted therapeutics – for multiple targets. Bristol Myers Squibb will have the option to obtain an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize ETBs directed to each selected target. Following the exercise of the option, Bristol Myers Squibb would be solely responsible for developing and commercializing the licensed ETBs.

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