EMBL spin-out Cellzome in €475M deal with Glaxo

Collaboration

Cellzome Ltd has announced the signing of a €475 million deal with GlaxoSmithKline plc, in which Glaxo will get exclusive access to apply Cellzome’s Episphere epigenetics technology platform in the area of immuno-inflammatory disease.

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will work together to identify selective small molecule hits against targets from four different epigenetic target classes. The companies will share operational responsibility for the programmes until identification of drug candidates, at which stage Glaxo will be responsible for further preclinical and clinical development and commercialisation.

Cellzome will receive an upfront payment of €33 million, comprising technology access fees and an equity investment by Glaxo. The milestone payments under the collaboration will reach over €475 million if all programmes are successfully developed and commercialised.

In September 2008 Cellzome and Glaxo agreed a deal with a potential value of over €1 million in the discovery and development of kinase inhibitors, also in the treatment of immuno-inflammatory diseases.

Epigenetics is an emerging area of science that involves changes in gene expression which are not caused by changes in DNA. While the field is being exploited in the development of treatments for cancer, this is the first time that a pharma company has done a deal in epigenetics for treating immuno-inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Tim Edwards, CEO of Cellzome, said, “We are delighted to form another major alliance with GSK, using our leading technology and people to find transformative medicines in this exciting field of biology.”

Cellzome was spun out of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, in 2000, initially to work on the proteomics of yeast and mammalian cells. It currently employs 90 staff at operating units in Cambridge and Heidelberg, with U.S. headquarters in Boston.