Astex could earn $500 million from strategic drug discovery alliance with GlaxoSmithKline

Cambridge, UK-based cancer therapy developer Astex Therapeutics has entered into a new collaboration deal with GlaxoSmithKline to discover, develop and commercialize novel compounds directed against multiple therapeutic targets of interest to the global drug giant.

The accord provides for an upfront payment and equity investment in Astex of £20 million ($33 million), comprising £12.5 million in cash and £7.5 million in equity. Astex is eligible to receive development and regulatory milestones and tiered royalties for each program. Total payments under the collaboration, excluding royalties, could reach over £300 million ($500 million), including non-clinical milestones worth more than £37 million, if all programs under the alliance are successfully developed and commercialized.

Under the new collaboration Astex will apply its fragment chemistry platform, Pyramid, to multiple targets identified by GSK, with the objective of identifying and developing new candidate drugs. The targets have been selected from multiple therapeutic areas within GSK.

Astex and GSK will form joint program teams to identify candidate compounds. Astex will be primarily responsible for the initial fragment screening and lead discovery, and GSK for optimization of the identified lead compounds. GSK will be solely responsible for completing pre-clinical and clinical development of all products arising from the collaboration, and for their commercialisation globally.

Commenting on the deal, Harren Jhoti, chief executive of Astex Therapeutics, said: 'This discovery alliance. This partnership is another testament to Astex' position as the leader in fragment-based drug discovery, an approach that has established itself as one of the most significant advances in discovery chemistry in the past two decades.'