Erbitux, a heavyweight anticancer drug, was transferred to Lilly Bristol Myers to focus on immunooncology business

Source: Biovalley April 17, 2015 Erbitux is one of the top ten best-selling anticancer drugs in the world BMS has been responsible for the sales of the drug in the United States for many years Now, however, Bristol Myers is focused on the burgeoning immune oncology, no longer in love with Erbitux, and turning it over to Eli Lilly Erbitux was originally developed by ImClone company, and then reached an R & D and marketing agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck Eli Lilly bought ImClone for $6.5 billion in 2008 and pocketed Erbitux In a statement yesterday, Bristol said it was extremely proud of Erbitux's 14 year sales record Prisimer's transfer of Erbitux's marketing rights to Lilai in North America also means that it has further adjusted its oncology business to better match the priority R & D opportunities across the solid tumor and malignant hematology fields Two pharmaceutical companies said Lilly would take over Erbitux's sales in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, with sales of $723 million in 2014 and $693 million in 2013 In addition, Eli Lilly will be fully responsible for the production of Erbitux Ken dominski, a spokesman for Bristol Myers Squibb, said the transfer of Erbitux rights would result in small-scale layoffs in the United States and Puerto Rico The transfer is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, but Bristol Myers will receive a tiered royalty until 2018 In addition, in February this year, Bristol Myers transferred Erbitux's marketing rights in Japan to Merck, Germany, where the two parties were previously jointly responsible for the sales of the market Bristol Myers made this decision because the company would like to transfer most of its money and energy to the field of immunooncology, such as the tumor immunotherapy PD-1 inhibitor opdivo, which can use the body's immune system against tumors Last December, opdivo harvested indications for melanoma, and this March, for lung cancer At present, Bristol Myers is investigating opdivo single drug and various combination therapies in a wide range of tumor types, in order to tap the clinical potential of opdivo Recently, Thomson Reuters put opdivo at the top of the 2015 blockbuster drug forecast list, predicting sales of the drug in 2019 to reach $5.68 billion As for Lilly, the company said it welcomed Erbitux's return If you take back the right to sell in the United States, Erbitux will now be one of Lilly's heavyweight products In a statement, Eli Lilly oncology president Sue Mahony said that bringing Erbitux into Eli Lilly's Oncology portfolio would enhance the company's leadership in gastrointestinal and head and neck cancer.