Under the deal, Bristol Myers Squibb and insitro will focus on the discovery and development of novel therapies to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Via the collaboration, insitro will use its insitro Human (ISH) platform to build induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived disease models for ALS and FTD.
The ISH platform is said to apply machine learning, human genetics and functional genomics to generate and enhance predictive in vitro models and boost therapeutic discovery and development.
The platform will be used to gather insights on disease progression, detect coherent patient segments and discover candidate targets.
Based on gathered insights, insitro will use its machine-learning-enabled therapeutics discovery capabilities to accelerate programmes.
Bristol Myers Squibb is provided with an option to select multiple targets detected by insitro to advance through clinical development and commercialisation.
As per terms of the deal, insitro will secure $50m in an upfront payment and will be eligible to receive an additional $20m in near term operational milestones.
insitro is also eligible to secure an aggregate of over $2bn in discovery, development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, in addition to royalty payments on net product sales.
Bristol Myers Squibb will take the responsibility for clinical development, and regulatory submissions and commercialisation activities.
insitro founder and CEO Daphne Koller said: “We are excited to partner with Bristol Myers Squibb and its world-class neuroscience leaders, who share our vision of leveraging human genetics, machine learning, and high-throughput biology and chemistry in order to identify and provide new treatments for patients suffering from these devastating diseases.”
Earlier this month, Bristol Myers Squibb signed an agreement to acquire clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company MyoKardia for $13.1bn.