Volastra Therapeutics and Bristol Myers Squibb are coming together to develop and commercialize new medicines.
In a deal made public this week, Volastra, an oncology-focused startup, announced that BMS will pay an upfront amount of $30 million — with the potential for an additional $1.1 in royalties — to use Volastra’s proprietary CINtech platform to discover and develop cancer drug candidates.
New York-based Volastra’s CINtech platform combines imaging technologies, model cell line systems and computational analytics to drive a 'differentiated pipeline,' according to the company.
“The combination of Bristol Myers Squibb’s expertise in oncology and Volastra’s deep understanding of chromosomal instability as cancer’s Achilles’ heel makes for an ideal partnership to advance novel therapies for patients,” said Charles Hugh-Jones, CEO at Volastra. “Through this collaboration, Volastra will apply our innovative platform towards the creation of effective CIN-targeted medicines. We look forward to working together with Bristol Myers Squibb to transform cancer treatment.”
Rupert Vessey, executive vice president at BMS said the company has high hopes for the partnership as well. “We look forward to collaborating with Volastra and utilizing their chromosomal instability targeting platform to identify important drug discovery insights. New therapies targeting CIN have the potential to enhance treatment selectivity and improve patient outcomes,” he concluded.