Synta, a biopharmaceutical company and GlaxoSmithKline have decided to end the collaborative agreement for the clinical development and commercialization of elesclomol, effective no later than September 10, 2009.
Worldwide rights to elesclomol will be reverted to Synta, and the copmpany may pay GSK a low single-digit royalty on any potential future sales of elesclomol.
Safi Bahcall, President and CEO of Synta, said: “We appreciate GSK’s contributions to this program and understand their decision. We will be meeting with medical and scientific advisors to review the data from the SYMMETRY trial and additional results later this year, and will use this guidance to inform our choices for a path forward for the program. We expect to report more on additional data and plans for the program later this year.”
“While we are continuing to evaluate the potential of elesclomol, we are focusing our resources on the other programs in our portfolio, particularly our Hsp90 program for which we expect to initiate a number of new clinical trials in the near term,” he added.