Cellzome Announces Achievement of First Milestone in Inflammation Alliance with GlaxoSmithKline

Cellzome Inc. announced that it has successfully achieved the first milestone in the strategic alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) established earlier this year, triggering payment of an undisclosed amount.

In September this year, Cellzome and GSK announced the signing of a worldwide strategic alliance to apply Cellzome’s drug discovery and development capabilities and its proprietary Kinobeads™ technology to identify, develop and market novel, kinase-targeted therapeutics to treat inflammatory diseases. GSK has exclusive options to license drug candidates from Cellzome’s kinase programs directed against seven targets.

Cellzome will develop these programs to clinical proof of concept, unless GSK elects to exercise its option earlier, and Cellzome is eligible to receive success-based milestones from GSK as product candidates are advanced. The milestone is the first of such payments under the agreement.

Tim Edwards, CEO of Cellzome, said: “We are making excellent progress on the programs optioned to GSK. The achievement of this first milestone so soon after the start of our collaboration is evidence of this and bears testimony to the power of our Kinobeads™ technology and the quality of our scientists. We look forward to continued success in this alliance.”