GSK Licenses Five Prime Muscle Disease Target

GlaxoSmithKline has exercised its option to obtain an exclusive, worldwide license to products associated with an undisclosed muscle disease target discovered using Five Prime Therapeutics screening and discovery capabilities. Five Prime will receive a $1.5 million exercise fee and is entitled to receive as much as $122.5 million in preclinical, development and commercial-related milestones and royalties on sales.
 
The companies entered the collaboration in 2010 for the discovery, development and commercialization of drug targets for skeletal muscle diseases using Five Prime’s protein target discovery platform. GSK will receive exclusive rights to develop and commercialize products globally that incorporate or are directed to the selected target.
 
“GSK has thoroughly evaluated this muscle disease target and their decision to obtain an exclusive license further validates the strength of our protein discovery platform to identify novel targets in conditions beyond our internal focal areas of cancer and inflammatory diseases,” said Lewis T. “Rusty” Williams, M.D., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Five Prime. “This novel target has the potential to result in new treatments for patients suffering from skeletal muscle disorders, many of which are not adequately treated by current therapies.”