Dive Brief:Bristol Myers Squibb and investment firm Bain Capital have joined forces to form a new biotechnology startup built around five of the pharmaceutical companys experimental immune disease drugs.According to Bristol Myers, the yet-to-be-named company will start with a $300 million funding commitment led by Bain Capital, three clinical-stage drug prospects and two Phase 1-ready medicines. The drugs target promising mechanisms in autoimmune diseases like lupus, plaque psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, the firms said Monday.Bristol Myers will get a 20% equity stake in the startup and could receive milestones tied to the success of the five drug programs and royalties on any eventual sales. Dan Lynch, a former Bristol Myers executive, will serve as its executive chairman and interim CEO.Dive Insight:One of the many ways to build a biotech startup involves plucking ready-made drugs from the shelves of pharmaceutical companies and surrounding them with an executive team devoted to their progress.That strategy eliminates the lengthy and costly drug discovery process, giving venture investors the chance at quicker returns. It also enables large drugmakers to cash in on pipeline projects that might have stalled or may no longer be a strategic fit.Since its formation eight years ago, Bain Capitals life sciences division has employed this plan multiple times. In 2017, it teamed up with Pfizer and other investors to launch Springworks Therapeutics along with four of the pharmaceutical companys experimental therapies. A year later, Bain Capital again joined with Pfizer to co-found Cerevel Therapeutics around a group of neuroscience drugs. Both have been acquired in multibillion-dollar deals since 2023.(Bain Capital has also built companies, like Aiolos Bio and Timberlyne Therapeutics, around medicines in-licensed from China.)Bain Capital is hoping for similar success with a handful of drugs that dont match Bristol Myers future plans. The three already in clinical testing are afimetoran, which blocks a pair of toll-like receptors and is being developed for lupus; a drug that, like Bristol Myers marketed medicine Sotyktu, inhibits TYK2; and an IL2 fusion protein being studied against lupus and atopic dermatitis. Two other biologics ready for testing target the signaling proteins IL8 and IL10, respectively.These assets have significant potential, and we are confident that this new company will drive their development to ensure greater impact for patients, said Bristol Myers senior vice president of business development, Julie Rozenblyum, in a statement. Bain Capitals exceptional track record in building successful life science companies by providing focused development and dedicated resources makes them ideally suited to advance these assets to realize their full promise.While Bristol Myers intends to continue investing in immunology, the company has made a strategic shift to focus on drugs with the potential to “reset the immune system and promote tissue repair, it said in the statement. Those programs include a cell therapy for autoimmune diseases and a multifunctional antibody for so-called IgG4-related disease that its working on with Zenas Biopharma.Robert Plenge, Bristol Myers executive vice president and chief research officer, will serve on the spinoffs board along with Lynch. Bain Capitals Nicholas Downing, Adam Koppel and Andrew Kaplan are also directors. '