Epizyme earns $4 million milestone under GSK collaboration

US clinical-stage biopharma firm Epizyme (Nasdaq: EPZM) announced the achievement of the lead candidate milestone for the third of the three histone methyltransferase (HMT) targets in the company's collaboration with UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and is receiving $4 million in milestone and license payments.

Previously, Epizyme announced the achievement of a $4 million development candidate milestone for the first GSK collaboration target in January 2014 and a $2 million lead candidate selection milestone for the second GSK collaboration target in February 2014. The news comes just as GSK has entered into an asset swap deal with Novartis, with the latter acquiring the UK firm’s oncology products as well as opt-in rights for its cancer pipeline (see separate story today).

"Epizyme's proprietary product platform is an ongoing source of potential novel therapeutic candidates for the treatment of genetically defined cancers as we translate the science of epigenetics into innovative personalized therapeutics for cancer patients," said Robert Copeland, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of Epizyme, adding: "Since we began our collaboration with GSK in 2011, we have identified novel small molecule inhibitors for all three collaboration HMT targets, a significant accomplishment in a short period of time in a new therapeutic class."