The Pulse
Tempus’ $192.5M Agreements Split Between BMS and Pathos
Tempus disclosed agreements totaling $192.5 million with Bristol Myers Squibb and Pathos AI, but only $137.5 million is fixed payments from BMS. The deals give BMS access to Tempus oncology data and its Lens platform, while a separate Patho
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
Tempus announced an expanded Bristol Myers Squibb collaboration on October 23, but the $192.5 million attached to the news covers agreements with two partners, not BMS alone. A Tempus filing breaks the total into $137.5 million in fixed oncology payments from BMS and up to $55 million tied to a separate neurology-data agreement with Pathos AI. The distinction matters: Pathos’s portion depends in part on records Tempus delivers.
The arrangements bring Tempus data, analysis software and an AI tool into drug-development work spanning oncology and neurological conditions. BMS will receive access to Tempus’s Lens platform and licensed oncology records through 2031. Pathos will license neurology records and a Tempus analysis tool, with permission to use them in work supporting BMS’s therapeutic development.
BMS’s $137.5 million oncology agreement
Under the BMS statement of work, Tempus will license selected records from its de-identified, multimodal oncology dataset, provide access to its Lens software and perform data-analysis and research services. The agreement runs through December 31, 2031, with payments invoiced quarterly. BMS may end the work with 12 months’ written notice, subject to a termination fee.
BMS can use the Tempus data with Pathos’s Foundry drug-development platform, which BMS licensed separately from Pathos. Tempus describes Lens as an AI-first platform for oncology drug development, supported by GPU infrastructure that lets BMS researchers train and run AI models on de-identified data. The stated aim is to help identify biological and clinical insights, find potential drug targets and support therapeutic development across BMS’s oncology portfolio; the announcement does not report a resulting drug discovery or clinical outcome.
“This strategic collaboration is an important step forward in using AI to advance the discovery of new treatment options and potentially improve patient outcomes,”
Eric Lefkofsky, founder and CEO of Tempus
Pathos adds a conditional neurology component
The other agreement has Tempus use commercially reasonable efforts to deliver and license 500,000 de-identified records concerning patients with Alzheimer’s disease or other specified neurological conditions. The plan sets a target of 100,000 records in each year of the five-year term. Pathos will pay up to $55 million: $100 per delivered record, up to $50 million, plus $5 million for record updates.
Tempus also licenses Pathos an agentic analysis tool, called Tempus Agent in the filing, for interrogating and analyzing the licensed data. Pathos can use the records and tool for its own purposes and to assist BMS. The agreements restrict Tempus from licensing the applicable neurology records to other third parties, with exceptions for BMS, Pathos and certain subcontractors, during a defined period tied to delivery dates.
The $192.5 million is not one BMS check
The SEC filing says the combined oncology and neurology agreements provide for $192.5 million in aggregate cash payments over approximately five years. It identifies $137.5 million under the BMS oncology statement of work and up to $55 million under the Pathos neurology order form. Because the Pathos fees depend on records delivered, the maximum combined amount is not guaranteed revenue.
The filing also says Tempus and Pathos have overlapping executive leadership and equity ownership, bringing the transactions within Tempus’s related-person transaction policy. A special committee of disinterested Tempus directors reviewed and approved the neurology order form and related side letter. That filing detail clarifies the structure behind the headline number: a fixed BMS oncology agreement sits alongside a separate, delivery-dependent Pathos deal that supports BMS’s development work.