Cellzome signs second inflammatory disease alliance with GSK
The collaboration will exploit Cellzome\'s proteomics technology in epigenetics.
Cellzome, a drug discovery company with laboratories in the UK and Germany, has formed a second strategic alliance with drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). This new collaboration gives GSK exclusive access to Cellzome's proprietary Episphere technology in the field of epigenetics as applied to immunoinflammatory disease.
GSK will make an upfront payment to Cellzone of Euro 33m, including technology access fees and the purchase of equity. Cellzome could potentially receive €475m in milestones as well as tiered royalties if all programmes under the alliance are successfully developed and commercialised.
The two companies will work together using Episphere to identify selective small-molecule drug candidates against targets from four different epigenetic target classes. They will share operational responsibility for the programmes until identification of drug candidates, at which stage GSK will assume responsibility for any further development and commercialisation.
Tim Edwards, chief executive of Cellzome, said: "Combining forces with GSK will accelerate the development of new anti-inflammatory drugs for the benefit of patients."
Cellzome's pipeline of small-molecule therapeutics is driven by Kinobeads, a proprietary technology for screening and profiling kinases in their physiological context. Episphere has been developed to address epigenetic targets in disease-specific protein complexes. The company's goal is to identify oral therapeutics for inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease.
Cellzome's other alliance with GSK is to discover, develop and market kinase-targeted therapeutics to treat inflammatory disease. The company also has an Alzheimer's treatment alliance with Johnson & Johnson.
