GSK, Flagship Pioneering Collaborate on Novel Medicine Discovery

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GSK and Flagship Pioneering, a bioplatform innovation company, are teaming up to discover and develop various medicines and vaccines, beginning with the respiratory and immunology sector.¹ The objective of the partnership is to combine GSK’s knowledge in disease areas expertise and development services with Flagship’s bioplatform network, including novel modalities and technologies.

To start out, the parties will be investing up to $150 million toward research and development candidate that could be combined with Flagship’s bioplatform companies. Following that phase, they aim to pinpoint as many as 10 novel medicines and vaccines; each of those would be subject to an exclusive option by GSK for additional clinical development. The deal’s terms note that Flagship and its bioplatform companies qualify to receive up to $720 million in upfront, development, and commercial milestones from GSK, along with preclinical funding and tiered royalties, for every purchased program.

“Together with Flagship, we will use science and technology to deliver best-in-class innovation at pace,” said Tony Wood, GSK’s chief scientific officer. “We look forward to partnering with the talented team at Flagship—and their ecosystem of bioplatform companies—to further accelerate our pipeline and discover practice-changing medicines and vaccines for patients.”

After all, noted Flagship executives, the parties have mutual interests.

“Flagship and GSK have a shared focus on delivering breakthrough medicines for patients,” commented Paul Biondi, general partner and president of Flagship Pioneering and Pioneering Medicines respectively. “This collaboration is the latest example of Flagship’s Innovation Supply Chain Partnership model, which is designed to generate transformational medicines together with our pharma partners by leveraging our ecosystem of first-in-category bioplatforms to create a sustainable source of treatments for patients with the greatest unmet needs.”

In other GSK news, the company has acquired full rights right from CureVac to develop, manufacture, and commercialize mRNA candidate vaccines for the flu and COVID-19;² this includes combinations as well. The parties have held this deal since 2020.

As part of the transaction, CureVac will be paid $433 million (€400 million) and up to an additional $1.14 billion (€1.05 billion) in development, regulatory and sales milestones, along with tiered royalties in the high single to low teens range.

“We are excited about our flu/COVID-19 programs and the opportunity to

develop best-in-class mRNA vaccines to change the standard of care,” added Wood. “With this new agreement, we will apply GSK’s capabilities, partnerships and intellectual property to CureVac’s technology, to deliver these promising vaccines at pace.”

References

1. GSK and Flagship Pioneering partner to discover novel medicines and vaccines. GSK. July 29, 2024. Accessed July 29, 2024. https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-and-flagship-pioneering-partner-to-discover-novel-medicines-and-vaccines/#:~:text=GSK%20and%20Flagship%20to%20jointly%20fund%20up%20to%20%24150%20million%20upfront&text=From%20these%20explorations%2C%20the%20collaboration,GSK%20for%20further%20clinical%20development.

2. GSK and CureVac to restructure collaboration into new licensing agreement. GSK. July 3, 2024. Accessed July 29, 2024. https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-and-curevac-to-restructure-collaboration-into-new-licensing-agreement/