Bristol-Myers Squibb ends drug development agreement with Medivir
Medivir announced that Bristol-Myers Squibb has terminated the development of the preclinical HIV compound MIV-170. The compound did not meet the profile desired by Bristol-Myers Squibb. MIV-170 belongs to the group of polymerase inhibitors that Medivir already discontinued the development of and that are administered by the subsidiary Medivir HIV Franchise AB.
"Everyone is aware of the obvious risks in early pharmaceutical development. MIV-170 has not yet reached clinical development and statistically half of all pharmaceutical projects fail in this early pre clinical development phase. However, the license agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb has already provided Medivir with payments that by far exceed Medivir´s investments in the project" said the CEO of Medivir HIV Franchise AB, professor Bo Öberg.
"The termination of this collaboration will not have any material effect on Medivir´s ability to establish itself as a profitable, research based pharmaceutical company with its own regional sales force. We have intentionally refrained from continued investments in the group of compounds that MIV-170 belongs to (i.e. polymerase inhibitors). Our focus is entirely on the mature projects Hepatit C-PI (Phase I), cathepsin K (Phase I) and Lipsovir® (Phase III) for which we are aiming at communicating clinical data later this year" said Medivir´s CEO Lars Adlersson.
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