AstraZeneca receives $1.6B upfront in oncology collaboration with Merck

AstraZeneca (AZN) and Merck (MRK) announced that they have entered a global strategic oncology collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialise AstraZeneca’s Lynparza for multiple cancer types.
#Lynparza is an oral poly ADP ribose polymerase, or PARP, inhibitor currently approved for BRCA-mutated #ovarian cancer in multiple lines of treatment.
The companies will develop and commercialize Lynparza jointly, both as monotherapy and in combination with other potential medicines.
Independently, the companies will develop and commercialise Lynparza in combination with their respective PD-L1 and PD-1 medicines, Imfinzi and Keytruda.
The companies will also jointly develop and commercialize AstraZeneca’s selumetinib, an oral, potent, selective inhibitor of MEK, part of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, currently being developed for multiple indications including thyroid cancer. Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca and Merck will share the development and commercialization costs for Lynparza and selumetinib monotherapy and non-PD-L1/PD-1 combination therapy opportunities.
Gross profits from Lynparza and selumetinib Product Sales generated through monotherapies or combination therapies will be shared equally.
Merck will fund all development and commercialization costs of Keytruda in combination with Lynparza or selumetinib. AstraZeneca will fund all development and commercialization costs of #Imfinzi in combination with Lynparza or selumetinib. AstraZeneca will continue to manufacture Lynparza and selumetinib.
As part of the agreement, Merck will pay AstraZeneca up to $8.5B in total consideration, including $1.6B upfront, $750M for certain license options and up to $6.15B contingent upon successful achievement of future regulatory and sales milestones.
Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca anticipates approximately $1B to be recorded under Externalization Revenue in 2017.
OTHER EVENTS
AstraZeneca plunged in pre-market trading as Phase III MYSTIC trial endpoint not met. AstraZeneca announced progression-free survival results for the Phase III #MYSTIC trial, a randomized, open-label, multi-center, global trial of Imfinzi monotherapy or Imfinzi in combination with tremelimumab versus platinum-based standard-of-care chemotherapy in previously-untreated patients with metastatic 1st-line non-small cell lung cancer.
MYSTIC TRIAL:
AstraZeneca has announced progression-free survival, or PFS, results for the Phase III MYSTIC trial, which is testing Imfinzi monotherapy or Imfinzi in combination with tremelimumab versus platinum-based standard-of-care chemotherapy in previously-untreated patients with metastatic first line non-small cell lung cancer.
The combination did not meet the primary endpoint of improving PFS compared to standard-of-care in patients whose tumors express PD-L1 on 25% or more of their cancer cells.
PRICE ACTION
In Thursday’s trading, shares of AstraZeneca have dropped over 15% to $28.72, while Bristol’s (BMY) stock has slipped almost 5% to $53.23. MYSTIC trial failure is a negative read-through for Bristol-Myers’ combo of Opdivo + Yervoy in the ongoing CheckMate-227 trial.
Meanwhile, Merck is up over 3% to $63.75.
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