Under a 2020 collaboration with MyoKardia, LianBio has held Asian rights to the potential blockbuster cardio drug mavacamten. Now, after buying out MyoKardia and winning and FDA nod for the medicine, Bristol Myers Squibb is ponying up for those rights.
With a $350 million one-time payment, BMS will take over development and commercialization rights to mavacamten in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand. Mavacamten is approved in the U.S. as Camzyos to treat symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (obstructive HCM).
LianBio has been handling development and commercialization in those territories through a 2020 deal with MyoKardia. Since the companies struck that accord, BMS bought out MyoKardia for $13.1 billion in 2020.
“As the global owner, BMS is ideally positioned to continue to build on the value we created for mavacamten in China and to optimize patient access to this important new medicine across these territories,” LianBio CEO Yizhe Wang, Ph.D., said in a statement.
LianBio spearheaded Camzyos’ approval for obstructive HCM earlier this year in Macau and Singapore, and it scored a priority review from the China National Medical Products Administration in April. A potential nod in China is expected next year, according to Wang.
BMS is “excited to build upon the strong foundation” LianBio created for the drug in China, chief commercialization officer Adam Lenkowsky said in a statement.
BMS looks to offer employment to some of LianBio’s Camzyos team. For its part, LianBio will now kick off a “comprehensive strategic review” of its company and plans to provide an update in the first half of next year.
Camzyos secured its FDA approval last April based on MyoKardia’s phase 3 data showcasing the drug’s ability to ease symptoms and increase functional status and quality of life over placebo in patients with obstructive HCM.
That indication is potentially just the first stop on Camzyos' journey. BMS is also testing med in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and plans to also test it in nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
During the second quarter of 2023, the drug generated $46 million. The company sees blockbuster potential, which it’s counting on ahead of top-seller Eliquis’ 2026 patent cliff and Revlimid’s recent loss of exclusivity.