Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
A bust: BMS paid Five Prime $350M upfront on a $1.7B CSF1R bet, but the pivotal Opdivo plus cabiralizumab pancreatic cancer trial (CARRY) failed to beat chemotherapy in 2020, and BMS shelved further sponsored development.
Outcome grade pending — assessed 5 years post-close.
Full analysis, sources & comparables →BMS informed Five Prime that the randomized Phase 2 trial of cabiralizumab plus Opdivo with and without chemotherapy did not meet its primary endpoint; BMS has…
The drug at the center of BMS's $1.7B partnership with Five Prime missed in Phase 2 pancreatic cancer, raising questions about whether…
Adding the CSF1R inhibitor cabiralizumab to nivolumab did not improve PFS over standard chemo in advanced pancreatic cancer, dampening enthusiasm for…
Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.
All 5 sources with sentiment breakdown →
BMS entered an exclusive worldwide license and collaboration with Five Prime for the CSF1R antibody program including FPA008 (cabiralizumab). Five Prime received $350M upfront with up to $1.39B in development and regulatory milestones plus tiered double-digit royalties. The pivotal Opdivo + cabiralizumab pancreatic cancer trial (CARRY) failed in 2020.
66K US cases/yr
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is one of the deadliest solid tumors, projected at ~66,440 new US cases and ~51,750 deaths in 2024. It is typically diagnosed late, with dense immunosuppressive stroma rich in tumor-associated macrophages that blunts checkpoint inhibitor response, leaving chemotherapy as the backbone of care.
Standard-of-care for advanced PDAC remains FOLFIRINOX and gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane); single-agent Opdivo (nivolumab) and Keytruda (pembrolizumab) have shown minimal activity outside MSI-high tumors. The cabiralizumab thesis was that anti-CSF1R depletion of tumor-associated macrophages would convert PDAC's 'cold' microenvironment and unlock PD-1 response — a hypothesis BMS paid $350M upfront ($1.74B biobucks) to validate in 2015. Competing TAM/myeloid-targeted programs included Plexxikon/Daiichi Sankyo's pexidartinib (Turalio, FDA-approved for TGCT in 2019, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2217/fon-2020-0542), Syndax's axatilimab, and Macrogenics' anti-CD47 efforts. The Phase 2 cabiralizumab + Opdivo +/- chemo trial (NCT03336216) missed PFS in February 2020, and BMS announced no further sponsored development. The failure reinforced that CSF1R blockade alone is insufficient to crack PDAC, and shifted attention to KRAS G12-targeted agents (Mirati/BMS adagrasib, Amgen sotorasib) and antibody-drug conjugates as the next-wave PDAC opportunities.
4K US cases/yr
Tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT, formerly pigmented villonodular synovitis/PVNS) is a rare benign but locally aggressive neoplasm of synovial tissue driven by CSF1 translocation, causing joint destruction and morbidity. Surgery is first-line but recurrence is common in diffuse-type disease.
Daiichi Sankyo's pexidartinib (Turalio) became the first FDA-approved systemic TGCT therapy in 2019 with a boxed warning for hepatotoxicity. Syndax/Incyte's axatilimab and Deciphera's vimseltinib (DCC-3014, FDA-approved February 2025 as Romvimza) subsequently entered the space. The BMS/Five Prime cabiralizumab program targeted PVNS as a precision indication leveraging CSF1R biology — but with pexidartinib's 2019 approval and no further BMS investment after the 2020 PDAC readout, cabiralizumab was deprioritized. The deal's strategic logic was to anchor a tumor-agnostic immuno-oncology combination platform around Opdivo, with PVNS providing a small but tractable monotherapy proof-of-concept indication. Five Prime was ultimately acquired by Amgen in March 2021 for $1.9B, primarily for bemarituzumab (FGFR2b) — cabiralizumab was a vestige asset by then.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (CSF1R antibody program) (this deal) | 2015 | $1.7B | — |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Medarex Inc. | 2009 | $2.4B | 92 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Celgene Corporation | 2019 | $74.0B | 77 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / MyoKardia Inc. | 2020 | $13.1B | 76 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Karuna Therapeutics | 2023 | $14.0B | 76 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | 2011 | — | 76 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company / SystImmune Inc. | 2023 | $8.4B | 71 |
← Browse all deals · How we score deals
More: 2015 deals · Bristol-Myers Squibb Company deals · Oncology deals