Alder Gets $15M From Bristol

Alder Biopharmaceuticals, the Bothell, WA-based developer of antibody drugs, said today it will receive a $15 million milestone payment from its partner, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Alder got the milestone for initiating a Phase 2b clinical trial of its rheumatoid arthritis drug, ALD518, in a trial that compares it against a blockbuster drug in the category—Abbott Laboratories’ adalimumab (Humira). Alder struck its partnership with Bristol-Myers to develop ALD518 (aka BMS-945429) back in November 2009.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.