Volastra Therapeutics, an oncology company focused on exploiting chromosomal instability (CIN) as a vulnerability for cancer cells, will collaborate with Bristol Myers Squibb to discover, develop and commercialize new medicines.

The multi-year collaboration will leverage Volastra’s proprietary CINtech platform, to identify CIN-related, synthetic lethal targets as drug candidates. Synthetic lethality is a well-established genetic approach of target discovery that involves exploiting vulnerabilities in tumour cells to induce tumour cell death while sparing normal cells. In pre-clinical models, Volastra has demonstrated that synthetical lethal approaches can be particularly effective in tumours with high levels of CIN.

“The combination of Bristol Myers Squibb’s expertise in oncology and Volastra’s deep understanding of chromosomal instability as cancer’s Achilles heel makes for an ideal partnership to advance novel therapies for patients,” said Charles Hugh-Jones, M.D., FRCP, Chief Executive Officer at Volastra. “Through this collaboration, Volastra will apply our innovative platform towards the creation of effective CIN-targeted medicines.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Volastra will be responsible for conducting various activities for undisclosed targets. For select targets, Volastra will conduct all research activities through development candidate selection and Bristol Myers Squibb may take on the responsibilities for all subsequent development, regulatory and commercial-ization activities of the development candidates under an exclusive worldwide license.

Volastra will receive $30 million in an upfront payment and will also be eligible to receive up to $1.1 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments. Additionally, Volastra is entitled to receive royalties on net global sales of any product commercialized by Bristol Myers Squibb resulting from the collaboration.