Pharma major GSK and American life sciences venture capital company Flagship Pioneering have signed a medicines and vaccines discovery deal worth up to $720m.
The collaboration is aimed at discovering and developing a range of medicines and vaccines, with an initial focus on respiratory and immunology fields.
The partnership leverages GSK’s expertise in disease areas and development capabilities alongside Flagship Pioneering’s ecosystem of more than 40 bioplatform companies, which encompasses advanced modalities and technologies.
GSK and Flagship Pioneering will inject up to $150m initially to support an exploration phase focused on identifying the concepts for further research and development through the latter’s bioplatform companies.
The collaboration aims to uncover up to 10 novel medicines and vaccines from these explorations. Each of the resulting products will be eligible for an exclusive option by GSK for further clinical development.
Under the agreement, Flagship Pioneering and its bioplatform companies could receive up to $720m in upfront payments, development, and commercial milestones from GSK.
In addition, the innovation companies will get preclinical funding and tiered royalties for each acquired programme.
GSK chief scientific officer Tony Wood said: “Together with Flagship, we will use science and technology to deliver best-in-class innovation at pace.
“We look forward to partnering with the talented team at Flagship, and their ecosystem of bioplatform companies, to further accelerate our pipeline and discover practice-changing medicines and vaccines for patients.”
Announced in 2000, Flagship Pioneering invents and builds bioplatform companies to create transformative products for human health and sustainability.
Currently, Flagship Pioneering’s ecosystem includes companies like Foghorn Therapeutics, Moderna, Omega Therapeutics, Inari, and others.
Pioneering Medicines president and Flagship Pioneering general partner Paul Biondi said: “This collaboration is the latest example of Flagship’s Innovation Supply Chain Partnership model, which is designed to generate transformational medicines together with our pharma partners by leveraging our ecosystem of first-in-category bioplatforms to create a sustainable source of treatments for patients with the greatest unmet needs.”
In May, Flagship Pioneering announced a research collaboration with Metaphore Biotechnologies and Novo Nordisk to develop next-generation therapeutics for obesity management.
Last year, the Flagship Pioneering signed a $100m deal with Pfizer to develop up to 10 new drugs for internal medicine, oncology, infectious diseases, and immunology.
