Bristol-Myers Squibb signs deal with Korean company OliPass

Privately-held Korean biopharmaceutical company OliPass has announced a worldwide strategic alliance with US drug major Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) to discover and develop therapeutics against multiple targets using OliPass' technology platform.

OliPass is focused on developing antisense medicines based on peptide nucleic acid (PNA) technology. Under the terms of the agreement, B-MS will make an up-front payment and will provide certain research support payments to continue development of the technology. OliPass will be eligible to receive additional payments upon completion of certain objectives as well as receive development milestones and royalties on the sales of each product licensed to B-MS under the agreement and other milestones based on the level of licensed product sales.

Shin Chung, founder and chief executive of OliPass, said: "This strategic alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb demonstrates that our innovative PNA platform has the potential to generate novel antisense therapeutics. We look forward to collaborating with Bristol-Myers Squibb to validate our platform and advance our unique PNA-based compounds into development."