ZymoGenetics scores mega-deal with BMS

Seattle-based ZymoGenetics scored a blockbuster deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb for its hepatitis C therapy PEG-interferon lambda. The biotech's stock soared 35 percent on the news that it would receive $85 million upfront, $20 million for a license fee this year and up to about a billion dollars more for clinical, regulatory and sales milestones.

BMS is betting that new trial data will underscore PEG-interferon lambda's comparative efficacy with current standards of therapy as well as an improved safety profile. Roche's Pegasys earns well over a billion dollars a year, and this new therapy could compete for that business.

The deal marks a major turn for ZymoGenetics. Just a week ago Xconomy profiled the company's woes in the wake of a key trial failure for lupus that helped wipe out 76 percent of the company's stock value. Lambda, though, was offered up as the gem in the pipeline that was working to earn a blockbuster rep.

- check out the press release [1]
- read the AP report [2]
- read the Xconomy profile [3]

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BMS to pay Exelixis $240M for cancer drugs [5]
Exelixis pockets $20M in BMS cancer collaboration [6]
ZymoGenetics lines up $100M [7]
FDA approves ZymoGenetics' rThrombin [8]