GSK Partners With Adaptimmune For Cancer Drug Research
GlaxoSmithKline, or GSK, has announced that it will be partnering with Adaptimmune in order to develop new cancer drugs. The companies will be focusing on developing drugs that can strengthen the body’s white blood cells in order to help them fight off cancers. GSK was recently in the news for selling its oncology business to Novartis for $16 billion this past April. However, as Bloomberg News says, this new deal reaffirms the company’s commitment to cancer drugs.
Adaptimmune, which is a biotechnology company based out of Oxford in England, announced that GSK will pay the firm about $350 million over the next 7 years if the cancer research produces viable drugs that can reach the market. While the full terms of the deal were not disclosed, it is believed that the agreement includes other future payments, such as royalties on drug sales.
The two companies will be using Adaptimmune’s cell-based treatment approach to contribute to the growing class of immunotherapies, which target proteins PD-1 and PD-L1. Other drug producers, such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Roche, and Merck favor developing immunotherapy treatments which use the body’s own immune system to fight against cancer cells. GSK does not currently have any PD-1 immunotherapy treatment programs.
Axel Hoos, the VP of oncology research and development at GSK, commented on the agreement with Adaptimmune. “This combination of capabilities offers an opportunity for significant progress in the use of the body’s immune system to fight cancer,” he said.
Rafael Amado, the head of oncology research and development at GSK, also commented on the agreement, calling it a research and development deal when interviewed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. He also said that the company was still deciding about drug commercialization. “The decision of how it will be commercialized, whether it’s something we will do, whether it will be something that will go to Novartis, whether it’s something that goes to another company, that is a decision that will be made in the future,” he said.