Mississauga, Ontario-based Septa Pharmaceuticals has acquired CeeNU (lomustine) from Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) Canada, effective June 29, 2026, resolving a documented patient access crisis for a chemotherapy agent used in brain tumors and Hodgkin's lymphoma that had been on Canada's Tier 3 Drug Shortages List — the highest severity designation.
The deal is not a conventional commercial transaction. BMS Canada filed a formal discontinuation notice with Health Canada in April 2024, triggering a supply gap that led to emergency importation of UK-labelled lomustine into British Columbia. No generic manufacturer stepped in despite the molecule being off-patent, leaving Septa to fill a structural market gap rather than pursue a standard specialty pharma acquisition.
Lomustine is an alkylating agent in the nitrosourea class that crosslinks and damages DNA strands, inhibiting replication in rapidly dividing cancer cells. It remains a standard-of-care chemotherapy for recurrent glioblastoma and certain Hodgkin's lymphoma regimens in Canada, with no approved targeted replacement in the recurrent glioblastoma setting. Active clinical trials continue to use it as a backbone or comparator, including a randomized Phase II trial at McGill evaluating eflornithine plus lomustine versus lomustine alone in approximately 280 patients.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The absence of a headline price is consistent with the access-driven context of the deal and the modest commercial ceiling imposed by Canada's Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, which limits the pricing upside available to Septa relative to what US acquirers have historically exercised on similar assets.