GSK exercises option for Five Prime’s skeletal muscle disease target

GSK paid $1.5m to obtain an exclusive, worldwide license to products containing or directed to an undisclosed muscle disease target discovered by Five Prime using its proprietary library of human extracellular proteins and target screening and discovery capabilities.

The option exercise gives exclusive rights to GSK develop and commercialize products worldwide, at its own cost and expense, which incorporate or are directed to the selected target.

In 2010, Five Prime and GSK entered into a partnership to enable the potential discovery, development and commercialization of drug targets for skeletal muscle diseases using the former’s protein target discovery platform.

Five Prime president and chief executive officer Lewis Williams said: "GSK has thoroughly evaluated this muscle disease target and their decision to obtain an exclusive license further validates the strength of our protein discovery platform to identify novel targets in conditions beyond our internal focal areas of cancer and inflammatory diseases.

"This novel target has the potential to result in new treatments for patients suffering from skeletal muscle disorders, many of which are not adequately treated by current therapies."

Five Prime is expected to receive up to $122.5m in preclinical, development and commercial-related milestone payments and royalties in the low- to mid-single-digit range on net sales of products related to the target.

Image: GSK has exercised an option to obtain an exclusive license for Five Prime’s undisclosed muscle disease treatments. Photo: Beyond My Ken.