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GlaxoSmithKline has linked up with Belgian firm Galapagos to discover and develop new anti-infectives.
Under the terms of the deal, Galapagos will receive up to 3.5m euros in technology access fees and up to 215m euros in development and commercial milestones.
It also stands to get a double-digit royalty on sales of products from the alliance which grants GSK options to license drug candidates that are directed against up to six anti-infective discovery targets.
The Mechelen-based firm will be responsible for the discovery and development of natural product small molecule drug candidates through to “proof of concept” in clinical trials, at which point GSK will have the exclusive option to license each compound for further development and commercialisation on a worldwide basis.
Onno van de Stolpe, Galapagos’s chief executive, noted that the deal was the firm’s first outside bone and joint diseases and showed that it could “generate significant business in new therapeutic areas”.
He added that the alliance “fits within our strategy of executing risk/reward sharing deals with big pharma”.
Zhi Hong, head of GSK’s Infectious Diseases Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery, said: “We recognise the significant unmet medical needs in hospital or community-acquired bacterial infections plus life-threatening viral diseases.”
