Black Diamond Therapeutics has found a partner for its deprioritized solid tumor candidate. Five months after cutting support for BDTX-4933, the biotech has licensed the RAF inhibitor to Servier for $70 million upfront and up to $710 million in milestones.
In October, Black Diamond concluded its attempt to push two cancer drugs through the clinic was stretching resources too thin and deprioritized BDTX-4933. The biotech, like many companies forced to make such decisions, said it would seek partners for the deprioritized candidate. Unlike many companies, Black Diamond actually found a taker.
Servier has secured a global license in return for the aforementioned upfront fee and development and sales milestones, plus royalties. Black Diamond began a phase 1 trial in patients with KRAS, BRAF and select RAS/MAPK mutation-positive cancers in 2023 but stopped enrollment in the study in October.
The deal tees Servier up to kick-start development and advance BDTX-4933 across multiple indications, including non-small cell lung cancer. Through the first-in-human study, the French drugmaker could find the preliminary recommended phase 2 dose and generate early evidence of the safety, tolerability and efficacy of the candidate in patients with cancers that harbor BRAF, CRAF or NRAS mutations.
Servier sees BDTX-4933 as a potential best-in-class targeted therapy that is uniquely designed to target RAS and RAF alterations in solid tumors. Aberrant activation of RAF-RAS signaling can induce tumors, leading many drug developers to target the pathway. Despite the activity, Black Diamond identified a need for a highly CNS-penetrant RAF inhibitor that targets a broad spectrum of oncogenic conformations.
Paris-based Servier will now show whether BDTX-4933 can meet that need. The prospect will slot into a pipeline that skews toward oncology, a therapeutic area that accounts for almost 70% of Servier’s R&D spending. Servier had 16 solid tumor and blood cancer projects in clinical development prior to its latest deal.