GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has agreed to develop new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases using ABL Bio’s platform technology for effectively delivering molecules across the blood-brain barrier (BBB), through a collaboration that could generate more than £2.15 billion ($2.75 billion) for the South Korean biotech.
GSK agreed to license ABL Bio’s BBB “shuttle” bispecific antibody platform, called Grabody-B, which is designed to facilitate drug penetration across the BBB by targeting the Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF1R), thus enabling efficient delivery into the brain.
The companies plan to apply Grabody-B toward developing an unspecified number of programs aimed at targets across therapeutic modalities including antibody, polynucleotide, or oligonucleotide therapies such as small interfering RNA (siRNA) and antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), with the goal of addressing significant unmet medical needs of patients with neurodegenerative conditions.
While those conditions were not spelled out in the companies’ announcement of their collaboration, ABL Bio CEO Sang Hoon Lee cited in his statement the increasing number of patients suffering from “neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases,” adding: “We hope this partnership will accelerate the development of innovative treatments and bring renewed hope to patients worldwide.”
Added Christopher Austin, GSK’s svp of research technologies: “There is a critical need for new therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative brain diseases, which are rapidly increasing in prevalence due to the aging of the population.”
While many promising new neuro therapies are antibodies, Austin continued, they cannot efficiently reach the brain without a “shuttle” or vehicle to get them across the BBB.
The collaboration is GSK’s latest focused on developing drugs for neuro diseases.
In December, GSK began a research alliance with Muna Therapeutics designed to identify and validate an unspecified number of novel drug targets for treating Alzheimer’s disease. The companies agreed to apply Muna’s MiND-MAP platform, which applies spatial transcriptomics to brain samples from Alzheimer’s disease patients, cognitively resilient individuals, healthy controls, and centenarians with and without cognitive impairment.
GSK agreed to pay Muna €33.5 million ($36.6 million) upfront, up to €140 million (nearly $153 million) per target in milestone payments, plus tiered royalties on net sales of products.
A month earlier, GSK joined Vesalius Therapeutics to launch a multi-target strategic alliance aimed at discovering and developing treatments for Parkinson’s disease, plus another undisclosed neurodegenerative indication.
GSK agreed to pay Vesalius $80 million in upfront and equity payments, up to $570 million tied to achieving preclinical, development, and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties for the preclinical small molecule program. GSL also agreed to pay undisclosed preclinical, development, and commercial milestone payments and tiered royalties for each novel intervention point resulting from the companies’ multi-target deal.
GSK agreed to pay ABL Bio up to £77.1 million ($98.6 million) in upfront and near-term payments, including an immediate upfront payment of £38.5 million ($49.2 million), as well as payments tied to research milestones and potential program expansion.
GSK also agreed to pay ABL Bio up to £2.075 billion ($2.65 billion) in payments tied to achieving research, development, regulatory, and commercialization milestones across multiple potential programs—as well as tiered royalties on net sales if products are successfully commercialized.
As part of the companies’ agreement, ABL Bio will transfer its Grabody-B-related technology and know-how to GSK, while GSK will assume responsibility for preclinical and clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization.
ABL Bio has used Grabody-B to create ABL301, a Parkinson’s disease candidate being developed in collaboration with Sanofi, which calls the drug SAR446159. ABL301 is under study in a Phase I trial (NCT05756920) designed to assess its safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics following single ascending dosing and multiple ascending dosing in healthy adults.
ABL Bio’s lead candidate is ABL001, partnered with Compass Therapeutics, which calls the drug CTX-009. ABL001 is a bispecific antibody now being evaluated in the Phase II/III COMPANION-002 trial (NCT05506943) assessing the drug with paclitaxel in metastatic or recurrent biliary tract cancers, a study whose estimated primary completion date is in July; and the Phase II COMPANION-003 open-label study (NCT05513742) in metastatic colorectal cancer that reached its primary completion date last month.
“This agreement reflects our commitment to innovative platform technologies to overcome the BBB and thus open entirely new opportunities for treating these devastating diseases, an important component of our emerging pipeline,” Austin stated.
The post GSK, ABL Bio Ink Up-to-$2.75B+ Neurodegenerative Collaboration appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
GSK agreed to license ABL Bio’s BBB “shuttle” bispecific antibody platform, called Grabody-B, which is designed to facilitate drug penetration across the BBB by targeting the Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF1R), thus enabling efficient delivery into the brain.
The companies plan to apply Grabody-B toward developing an unspecified number of programs aimed at targets across therapeutic modalities including antibody, polynucleotide, or oligonucleotide therapies such as small interfering RNA (siRNA) and antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), with the goal of addressing significant unmet medical needs of patients with neurodegenerative conditions.
While those conditions were not spelled out in the companies’ announcement of their collaboration, ABL Bio CEO Sang Hoon Lee cited in his statement the increasing number of patients suffering from “neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases,” adding: “We hope this partnership will accelerate the development of innovative treatments and bring renewed hope to patients worldwide.”
Added Christopher Austin, GSK’s svp of research technologies: “There is a critical need for new therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative brain diseases, which are rapidly increasing in prevalence due to the aging of the population.”
While many promising new neuro therapies are antibodies, Austin continued, they cannot efficiently reach the brain without a “shuttle” or vehicle to get them across the BBB.
Neuro disease focus
The collaboration is GSK’s latest focused on developing drugs for neuro diseases.
In December, GSK began a research alliance with Muna Therapeutics designed to identify and validate an unspecified number of novel drug targets for treating Alzheimer’s disease. The companies agreed to apply Muna’s MiND-MAP platform, which applies spatial transcriptomics to brain samples from Alzheimer’s disease patients, cognitively resilient individuals, healthy controls, and centenarians with and without cognitive impairment.
GSK agreed to pay Muna €33.5 million ($36.6 million) upfront, up to €140 million (nearly $153 million) per target in milestone payments, plus tiered royalties on net sales of products.
A month earlier, GSK joined Vesalius Therapeutics to launch a multi-target strategic alliance aimed at discovering and developing treatments for Parkinson’s disease, plus another undisclosed neurodegenerative indication.
GSK agreed to pay Vesalius $80 million in upfront and equity payments, up to $570 million tied to achieving preclinical, development, and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties for the preclinical small molecule program. GSL also agreed to pay undisclosed preclinical, development, and commercial milestone payments and tiered royalties for each novel intervention point resulting from the companies’ multi-target deal.
Nearly $100M upfront
GSK agreed to pay ABL Bio up to £77.1 million ($98.6 million) in upfront and near-term payments, including an immediate upfront payment of £38.5 million ($49.2 million), as well as payments tied to research milestones and potential program expansion.
GSK also agreed to pay ABL Bio up to £2.075 billion ($2.65 billion) in payments tied to achieving research, development, regulatory, and commercialization milestones across multiple potential programs—as well as tiered royalties on net sales if products are successfully commercialized.
As part of the companies’ agreement, ABL Bio will transfer its Grabody-B-related technology and know-how to GSK, while GSK will assume responsibility for preclinical and clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization.
ABL Bio has used Grabody-B to create ABL301, a Parkinson’s disease candidate being developed in collaboration with Sanofi, which calls the drug SAR446159. ABL301 is under study in a Phase I trial (NCT05756920) designed to assess its safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics following single ascending dosing and multiple ascending dosing in healthy adults.
ABL Bio’s lead candidate is ABL001, partnered with Compass Therapeutics, which calls the drug CTX-009. ABL001 is a bispecific antibody now being evaluated in the Phase II/III COMPANION-002 trial (NCT05506943) assessing the drug with paclitaxel in metastatic or recurrent biliary tract cancers, a study whose estimated primary completion date is in July; and the Phase II COMPANION-003 open-label study (NCT05513742) in metastatic colorectal cancer that reached its primary completion date last month.
“This agreement reflects our commitment to innovative platform technologies to overcome the BBB and thus open entirely new opportunities for treating these devastating diseases, an important component of our emerging pipeline,” Austin stated.
The post GSK, ABL Bio Ink Up-to-$2.75B+ Neurodegenerative Collaboration appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.