Chroma receives milestone payment from Glaxo as drug enters clinical development

Milestone

Chroma Therapeutics Limited has announced that it has advanced a macrophage-targeted HDAC (Histone deacetylase) inhibitor, CHR-5154, into preclinical development, triggering an undisclosed milestone payment from partner GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

HDAC inhibitors have been demonstrated to have broad anti-inflammatory activity, in addition to their activity in a variety of cancers, and may be useful for the treatment of disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. CHR-5154 utilises Chroma’s proprietary esterase-sensitive motif (ESM) technology, which targets compounds to specific cells in the inflammatory disease process. CHR-5154 is the second programme Chroma has advanced into development from its ESM technology platform.

Ian Nicholson, CEO of Chroma, said, “We are pleased to have made rapid progress towards validating clinical studies in our collaboration with GSK. We believe this progress validates our belief that our ESM technology will provide a strong and sustainable flow of novel, differentiated development candidates.”

Chroma entered into a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline through its Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD) in June 2009. Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Chroma will undertake four discovery and development programmes to identify small molecule therapeutics and is eligible to receive milestones, option fees and tiered royalties based on compounds arising from the collaboration.

Overall, Chroma has the potential to receive in excess of $1 billion in total milestone and option payments in the event that all four programmes are successful.