GSK will access LifeMine’s drug discovery platform, Avatar-Rx, to identify novel small molecule leads directing up to three human targets of its choice
GlaxoSmithKline head office, London. (Credit: Ian Wilson/Wikipedia)
British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has entered into a strategic R&D collaboration with LifeMine Therapeutics to access the latter’s genomically enabled drug discovery platform.
LifeMine is a biopharmaceutical firm that discovers new drugs through mining genetically-encoded small molecules (GEMs) from the biosphere.
Under the collaboration, GSK will access LifeMine’s drug discovery platform, Avatar-Rx, to identify novel small molecule leads directing up to three human targets of its choice.
LifeMine is eligible to receive $70m as upfront payment, which includes both cash and equity investment as part of the company’s Series C financing round.
In addition, the biopharmaceutical firm will receive an undisclosed sum of milestone payments for each product resulting from the collaboration, along with royalties on net sales.
Both companies will work on the discovery process, leveraging individual core capabilities and equally sharing costs to IND filing.
GSK will assume responsibility for all the development and commercialisation activities.
GSK SVP, research head John Lepore said: “GSK’s drug discovery approach focuses on advanced technologies, including human genetics, functional genomics and machine learning to increase our probability of success.
“This approach leads to genetically validated targets that are twice as likely to succeed as medicines, but due to their novelty often require innovation to unlock their potential.
“We are looking forward to teaming up with LifeMine to use their cutting-edge platform, so together we can identify what nature might have already created as chemistry starting points to increase our chances of developing transformational new drugs for patients.”
LifeMine said that its Avatar-Rx platform can be easily integrated with high-throughput microbiology, data science and machine learning, genome editing technologies.
Based on its capabilities, the platform is being used for searching the novel GEMs with a predetermined target and biological function, in the fungal biosphere.
Also, the platform is said to further integrate chemoinformatic-assisted drug optimisation and advanced chemical synthesis to advance new product candidates into development.
In the Series C financing round, LifeMine has raised $175m, led by new investor Fidelity Management & Research. GSK joined the round as a strategic partner.
New investors Invus and 3W Partners Capital, also have participated in the round, alongside existing investors GV, Arch Venture Partners, Blue Pool Capital and MRL Ventures Fund.
LifeMine co-founder, CEO and chief scientific officer Gregory Verdine said: “This is a transformative collaboration for LifeMine, and marks the first such agreement in genomic drug discovery from fungi, nature’s virtuoso medicinal chemists.
“We are thrilled to partner with GSK to expand the potential of our drug discovery engine while we continue to advance our own lead programs. We look forward to a productive partnership which we are confident will result in novel therapeutic options for patients.”