GSK to acquire Hepatitis C specialists Genelabs
pharmafile | October 30, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â GSK, Genelabs, MAÂ
GlaxoSmithKline is to pay $57 million (£35 million) for Genelabs, California-based specialists in infectious diseases, including hepatitis C.
The companies are already working together on a vaccine for hepatitis E, currently in phase II, and Genelabs has a number of other candidates in pre-clinical development.
Genelabs is to be integrated into GSK's drug discovery operations which specialise in infectious diseases.
Zhi Hong, head of the Infectious Diseases Centre for Excellence in Drug Discovery (ID CEDD) at GSK, said: "Genelabs has demonstrated a strong track record in hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug discovery and identified numerous novel classes of inhibitors that target unprecedented mechanisms in the virus's life cycle.
"This arrangement, combined with our other collaborations, will give GSK a broad HCV drug discovery platform addressing novel targets and innovative therapeutic approaches."
Fred Driscoll, president and chief executive of Genelabs, said: "This transaction provides our shareholders with certain value at a substantial premium to our stock price. Through the efforts of our experienced scientific staff and other employees, we have generated highly differentiated compounds with the potential to address unmet medical needs of people with the HCV infection.
"GSK's world-class research and development organisation will allow us to accelerate our strategic vision of providing novel treatments that deliver tremendous value for patients."
The companies say there is a high unmet need to treat HCV infection. The current gold standard therapy comprises pegylated-alpha interferon (IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV). But the efficacy rate of this combination is relatively low (around 50%) and both drugs are associated with significant side effects that often lead to patients stopping treatment.
Schering-Plough and Roche are the two biggest players in the hepatitis treatment market, but GSK is a major player in hepatitis vaccines, with products already available for hepatitis A and B.
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