Chroma seals $1B deal with GSK and closes £15M fourth round

Collaboration | Funding

Chroma Therapeutics Ltd has agreed a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline plc with a headline value of $1 billion, in which Chroma will apply its proprietary esterase-sensitive motif (ESM) technology to target small-molecule drugs into macrophages in the treatment of inflammatory diseases.

The deal calls for Chroma to advance four programmes to clinical proof of concept, at which point GSK has the option take on responsibility for completing clinical development and commercialising the products. For Chroma to realise the full $1 billion all four products will need to get to market, and reach certain predetermined sales levels.

This may be a tall order, but in the meantime Oxford-based Chromos has received an (undisclosed) upfront cash payment and GSK has joined existing investors in Chroma’s fourth round of private funding, which closed at £15 million.

“This agreement marks GSK’s continued efforts to access the best science and technology platforms worldwide,” said Shelagh Wilson, Vice President and head of GSK’s Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery in Europe.

Ian Nicholson, CEO of Chroma Therapeutics, said, “This collaboration provides strong validation of our technology platform and will enable Chroma to progress a broad pipeline of novel agents against a range of serious diseases.”

The ESM targeting technology can be adapted to target small molecules into other cell types. Armed with the validation of securing the deal with GSK, Nicholson aims to license the technology in other disease areas.

At the same time the £15 million fourth financing round enables the Oxford-based company to advance the existing in-house portfolio of three clinical stage products. In particular, it now has the money to pay for a Phase III trial of its lead product tosedostat (CHR-2797) in the treatment of a form of leukaemia.

The venture capital backers are Abingworth Management, Essex Woodlands Healthcare Ventures, Gilde Healthcare, Nomura Phase4 Ventures and The Wellcome Trust. Chroma raised £1.5 million when it was set up in 2001 to commercialise research carried out by Tony Kouzarides at Cambridge University and Paul Workman of the Institute of Cancer Research in London. In May 2004, it raised £10 million in its second round, subsequently boosting the round by another £5 million in December 2004, and then took £30 million in the third round three years ago.

Nicholson said the fundraising climate has never been worse than it is now, but the company has raised what it set out for.