The Life Sciences team advised Vesalius Therapeutics in its multi-target strategic alliance with GSK to discover and develop novel treatments for Parkinson's disease, and another undisclosed neurodegenerative indication. Vesalius will leverage its platform to identify novel intervention points in Parkinson's disease and one additional indication in neurodegeneration, and GSK will have the option to advance programs against those novel intervention points. GSK will also gain worldwide development and commercial rights from Vesalius to a preclinical small molecule program with an initial focus in Parkinson's disease.
Under the terms of the agreement, GSK will be responsible for advancing Vesalius' preclinical small molecule program with an initial focus in Parkinson's disease and has the option to advance programs for novel intervention points identified in Parkinson's disease and another neurodegenerative indication. GSK will control all development and commercialization. Vesalius will receive $80 million in upfront and equity payments, and is eligible to receive potential preclinical, development and commercial milestone payments of up to $570 million along with tiered royalties for the preclinical small molecule program. In addition, Vesalius is eligible to receive preclinical, development and commercial milestone payments and tiered royalties for each of the novel intervention points that result from the multitarget deal.
Vesalius Therapeutics is pioneering a revolutionary platform to generate breakthrough treatments for common diseases. Vesalius' platform uses large-scale human genetics, genomics, stem cell studies and artificial intelligence to uncover causal biology and identify optimal intervention points for new therapies. Efficiently identifying these intervention points and the patients most likely to benefit from these novel therapies will enable smaller, shorter clinical trials with a higher probability of success. Vesalius was founded in 2019 by Flagship Pioneering.
The Goodwin team was led by Nancy Urizar, Chris Zhong, Kingsley Taft, Stuart Cable, Stephanie Richards, Steven Green, Connor McMillan and Kevin Boyle and included Noelle Dubiansky (IPTS); Paul Jin, Simone Waterbury and Brady Cummins (Anti-trust); Daniel Karelitz and Katie Leah (Tax); Susan Lee (Regulatory); Anne Brendel, Gabe Maldoff and Curtis McCluskey (Privacy).
For additional details, please read the press release and coverage in FierceBiotech and BNN Bloomberg.