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Bristol Myers Squibb has signed a partnership worth up to $11bn to develop a BioNTech cancer drug that has the potential to beat the world’s bestselling medicine Keytruda.
The US drugmaker will co-develop and commercialise the medicine, known as BNT327. The deal is one of the largest-ever pharma partnerships and the biggest for Germany’s BioNTech, which is best known for its Covid-19 vaccine with Pfizer.
BioNTech worked for three years on the drug with Chinese group Biotheus, which originally discovered it, before buying the company for nearly $1bn late last year.
The drug, which is in more than 20 trials including two late-stage studies, has shown potential to beat Merck’s blockbuster Keytruda, which was the bestselling drug in 2024 with $29.5bn in sales.
Uğur Şahin, BioNTech’s chief executive, said it wanted to work with BMS because it was an “established pioneer with vast experience in the field of immunoncology” — using the immune system to tackle cancer.
“The potential of the opportunity is bigger than we can deliver alone,” he added. BioNTech estimates the drug could be used to treat up to 3mn patients.
BNT327 is a “bispecific” engineered antibody that can bond to two sorts of cancer cell receptors at once, unlike natural antibodies. This allows it to simultaneously work in the same way as Keytruda — enabling the immune system to recognise and kill cancer cells — and to inhibit a key protein that promotes tumour growth.
Şahin said the drug so far showed longer-lasting efficacy and could offer opportunities for treating many different types of cancer.
BMS is trying to boost its pipeline in the face of upcoming patent expirations for key drugs including cancer medicine Opdivo — which works in a similar way to Keytruda — and anti-blood-clotting drug Eliquis.
Christopher Boerner, chair and chief executive of BMS, said the new drug had “significant potential for transforming the standard of care for patients with solid tumours”.
The company has been preparing for patent expiries by cutting costs and striking deals, including the $14bn acquisition of Karuna Therapeutics for its schizophrenia drug. Earlier this year, Boerner said business development was the group’s top “capital allocation priority” in 2025. Its shares are up 15.6 per cent over the past 12 months.
BioNTech has been investing the proceeds from its Covid vaccine into building oncology expertise.
It is pursuing using the mRNA technology developed for its Covid vaccines to create personalised shots to treat individual tumours. It has also been adding other technologies such as BNT327 and a more targeted version of chemotherapy, called antibody drug conjugates, and is exploring how to combine various drugs.
BMS and BioNTech will share the cost of most of the clinical trials of BNT327 equally and target commercialisation in all global markets.
BMS will pay BioNTech $1.5bn upfront, followed by up to $2bn of additional payments until 2028. BioNTech will be eligible to receive up to $7.6bn in further milestone payments.
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