Bristol Myers Squibb has agreed to pay up to $11.1 billion to partner with Germany's BioNTech and develop the latter's next-generation cancer immunotherapy, which could take on rival Merck & Co's best-selling drug Keytruda.

Bristol-Myers makes an $11 billion deal with BioNTech to join the new cancer-treatment game, nearly double the size of Pfizer’s deal announced two weeks earlier.

Bristol Myers Squibb and BioNTech to co-develop cancer immunotherapy BNT327 in a deal worth up to $11.1 billion.