GSK ENTERS $1.5 BILLION DEAL WITH CHEMOCENTRYX

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and ChemoCentryx have announced a partnership to develop and market new medicines to treat a variety of inflammatory disorders.

The collaboration will combine GSK's capital with ChemoCentryx's expertise in biopharmaceuticals, executives from both firms said.

As part of the arrangement, GSK will transfer $63.5 million to ChemoCentryx and make an equity investment in the company. ChemoCentryx will also get research funding from GSK, as much as $1.5 billion for six products, pending successful development and marketing. It will also get double-digit royalties on all joint-effort product sales. Under certain circumstances, GSK will invest in ChemoCentryx's common stock.

In return, ChemoCentryx will be responsible for discovering and developing small-molecule drug candidates, giving GSK exclusive options to license each product for further development and worldwide marketing.

The pair will focus on drugs targeting four chemokine and chemoattractant receptors for the treatment of inflammatory disorders. One such drug is ChemoCentryx's Traficet-EN, which is currently in a multinational clinical trial for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.