On Monday, Prime Medicine Inc. (NASDAQ:PRME) announced a strategic research collaboration and license agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb & Co (NYSE:BMY) to develop reagents for the next generation of ex vivo T-cell therapies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Prime Medicine will design optimized Prime Editor reagents for a select number of targets, including reagents that use its Prime Assisted Site-Specific Integrase Gene Editing (PASSIGE) technology.

Also Read: Preclinical-Phase Firm Prime Medicine’s Gene Editing Platform Has Potential: Analyst.

Bristol Myers Squibb will be responsible for developing, manufacturing, and commercializing next-generation cell therapies, with support from Prime Medicine in gene editing strategy and reagent development.

Prime Medicine will receive a $55 million upfront payment and a $55 million equity investment from Bristol Myers Squibb.

Prime Medicine is also eligible to receive more than $3.5 billion in milestones, including up to $1.4 billion in development milestones and more than $2.1 billion in commercialization milestones, along with royalties on net sales.

Concurrently, Prime Medicine announced that it would streamline its pipeline.

The company said it will focus on developing two programs for chronic granulomatous disease (CGD).

• PM359, an ex vivo autologous hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) product: The company has initiated a Phase 1/2 clinical trial to assess the safety, biological activity, and preliminary efficacy of PM359 in adult and pediatric patients and expects initial clinical data study in 2025.
• Ex vivo HSC product for the treatment of X-linked CGD

Other candidates that the company will prioritize include:

• Lipid nanoparticle (LNP) Prime Editor for Wilson’s Disease: Prime Medicine expects to present new preclinical data and initiate IND-enabling activities in the fourth quarter of 2024 and intends to file an IND and/or clinical trial application in the first half of 2026. 
• LNP / adeno-associated virus Prime Editors for the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis.

With the $110 million upfront consideration received from Bristol Myers Squibb under the strategic research collaboration and license agreement announced this morning, Prime Medicine expects its cash runway to fund operations into the first half of 2026.

Prime Medicine is identifying partnership opportunities to advance its other programs, including those for neurological diseases, cell therapy, ocular diseases, and hearing loss.

Price Action: PRME stock is up 17.1% at $4.05 during the premarket session at last check Monday.

Photo via Shutterstock

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