Date: 2012-05-01
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: medicines that degrade disease-causing proteins
Company: GSK (UK) Yale University (USA)
Therapeutic area: Cancer Oncology - Infectious diseases - Inflammatory diseases
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism: These products will be based on Yale’s pioneering work on proteolysis targeting chimeric molecules or PROTACs. PROTAC technology guides disease-causing proteins to a cell’s “garbage disposal” where they can be destroyed.
Disease:
Details: GSK and Yale University have established a drug discovery research collaboration to design a potential new class of medicines that degrade disease-causing proteins. Mutant or higher-than normal amounts of these proteins typically drive disease progression in areas such as oncology, inflammation and infections; yet many cannot be tackled by traditional ways of making drugs.
Under the agreement, a joint research team will work to show that PROTACs can be turned into future medicines. GSK will then have the right to use this technology for multiple disease-causing proteins across all therapy areas. For each protein-degrading drug that is discovered and developed, Yale will be eligible for milestone and royalty payments.
The collaborative work with GSK and Yale is already underway, with the goal of showing crucial proof of principle for this technology by the end of 2012.
Financial terms:
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