In an effort to expand its cash runway beyond 12 months, Prime Medicines has signed a deal with Bristol Myers Squibb worth a potential $3.5 billion, while also streamlining its pipeline to trim costs.
Gene editing biotech Prime Medicine took two steps forward and one step back Monday, announcing a sizeable partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb worth billions in potential milestones, but also implementing a pipeline re-organization to eke out enough cash to operate into 2026.
The company, co-founded by gene editing pioneer David Liu, revealed the BMS deal in a Monday morning press release, detailing the plan to work together on ex vivo T-cell therapies for $110 million upfront. That payment will be split between $55 million upfront and $55 million in equity. The back-ended deal includes milestones of up to $3.5 billion, including $1.4 billion for development steps and $2.1 billion for commercialization activities.
Prime will design prime editor reagents for an unnamed number of targets in hematology, immunology and oncology and BMS will conduct development, manufacturing and commercialization with support from the biotech.
A minute after announcing the BMS deal, Prime issued news of a pipeline reorganization meant to streamline operating expenses and capital expenditures. The goal is to extend the company’s cash runway into the first half of 2026. Prime had warned in a June 30 SEC filing that management had concerns about its ability to continue as a going concern beyond 12 months.
“In order to maximize prime editing’s reach, we believe now is the time to strategically focus our efforts on a set of high value programs,” CEO Keith Gottesdiener said in a statement. He said that each program to be prioritized will serve as a “beachhead” to later progress the company’s follow-on programs.
The first program to be prioritized is PM359, an ex vivo autologous hematopoietic stem cell therapy under development for patients with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) who have a mutation of the p47phox gene. Prime has initiated a Phase I/II study of the candidate in adult and pediatric patients, with initial clinical data expected in 2025. The biotech plans to advance the candidate quickly into pivotal testing once that proof-of-concept data is available, according to Monday’s release.
Second in line is an ex vivo hematopoietic stem cell therapy for X-linked CGD. The program will build on Prime’s work in p47phox CGD, expanding into mutations of the CYBB gene which occur in two third of patients with the disease.
The work with BMS will be Prime’s other priority, and there could be more business development to find partnerships to leverage the biotech’s gene editing technology, according to the release.
The final two programs that will still have a role in the pipeline are a lipid nanoparticle for Wilson’s disease and a lipid nanoparticle/adeno-associated virus for cystic fibrosis.
Prime will seek partnership opportunities for its remaining programs in neurological diseases, cell therapy, ocular diseases and hearing loss. The company could return to them later, however.
The news of the BMS deal and pipeline changes sent Prime’s shares climbing 14% on Monday afternoon to $3.95.
