GSK signs $1.5 billion drug discovery deal
pharmafile | August 31, 2006 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â Â
GlaxoSmithKline has formed an alliance with Californian biotech company ChemoCentryx through its innovative drug development partnering unit.
A licensing deal has been signed worth up to $1.5 billion in milestone payments to ChemoCentryx , which will receive an upfront payment of $63.5 million, in both cash and equity.
The deal follows in the footsteps of an $83 million collaboration with US pharma company, Pharmacopeia, earlier this year, the first deal using its new approach to working with biotech companies.
As with Pharmacopeia, the alliance with ChemoCentryx will be conducted through GSK's Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD) and will provide the company with access to selected targets from one of the broadest pipelines of chemokine-based therapeutics in the biotech industry.
The CEEDD was formed by GSK to create small, independent and accountable R&D teams and the company says it is "virtualising" a portion of its pipeline.
GSK hopes the new approach will help speed up the development time of new in-licensed drugs from target to clinical proof through risk-sharing/reward-sharing alliances with biotech and smaller pharmaceutical companies.
In its alliance with ChemoCentryx, GSK will gain the right to discover, develop and market the company's novel medicines – targeting four chemokine and chemo-attractant receptors for treating a variety of inflammatory disorders, including Traficet-EN, which is in late-stage development for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
GSK wants to make the most of new approaches in targeting diseases by setting up long-term agreements with smaller pharma and biotech companies, which have proven very successful in developing innovative medicines using novel molecules in recent years.
Maxine Gowan, head of GSK's centre of excellence, said: "The ChemoCentryx alliance is a landmark relationship for the CEEDD. This collaboration clearly demonstrates GSK's commitment to gain access to leading-edge, best-anywhere science and we are excited by the opportunity to work with ChemoCentryx and its world class team."
She added: "Accessing its expertise and four advanced chemokine programmes, including Traficet-EN, will allow us to bring novel medicines to patients with high unmet need."
Thomas Schall, chief executive of ChemoCentryx, commented: "This important alliance with GSK will provide us with access to significant capital in the near and long term to support the ongoing development in each of these programmes, as well as the ability to continue to discover and bring forward multiple new compounds targeting the chemokine system."
Apart from the current phase III Traficet-EN programme for Crohn's disease, ChemoCentryx's other programmes in the GSK alliance will target receptors implicated in a number of inflammatory conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, acute macular degeneration and asthma.
Following news of the ChemoCentryx collaboration, GSK shares rose 23p to 14 pounds 44p on the stock market.
