Celgene Signs Deals With Lycera, Bluebird

Celgene will collaborate with Lycera, a Michigan-based developer of immune modulators. The two firms will work on advancing Lycera’s small-molecule RORγ agonists for cancer immunotherapy and a clinical-stage candidate against inflammatory bowel disease. Celgene will pay $82.5 million and gain exclusive options to both license Lycera’s agonist compounds and acquire the firm. Separately, Celgene has paid $25 million to refocus its two-year-old deal with Bluebird Bio on oncology therapies targeting B-cell maturation antigen. An initial anti-BCMA lead is expected to enter Phase I trials in early 2016. Bluebird will retain rights to all other chimeric antigen receptor T-cell programs originally part of the collaboration.