Vesalius, GSK partner to develop new Parkinson’s treatments
GSK has option to advance promising candidates identified by Vesalius
Vesalius Therapeutics has entered into an agreement with GSK to advance the development of new therapies for Parkinson’s disease and one other undisclosed neurodegenerative condition.
Under the agreement, Vesalius will be responsible for identifying new treatment targets for the conditions, while GSK will have the option to advance promising candidates that emerge from that research.
With its approach, Vesalius is changing how diseases are understood by focusing on overlooked clinical patterns in groups of patients that could benefit from new treatments against targets identified using genetics, stem cell models, and artificial intelligence.
“Central to our alliance with GSK is our shared conviction that targeting the causal factors of common diseases like Parkinson’s disease is the key to developing breakthrough medicines faster and with a higher probability of success,” John Mendlein, PhD, executive chairman and interim CEO at Vesalius, said in a company press release.
Initial focus: Parkinson’s disease
In turn, GSK will become solely responsible for globally developing and marketing a small molecule from Vesalius that’s under preclinical testing. The initial focus for that program will be Parkinson’s disease.
“GSK brings numerous strengths to this alliance including its global scale and expertise in human genetics,” said Amanda Kay, PhD, senior partner and chief business development officer at Flagship Pioneering, which founded Vesalius in 2019.
Under the agreement, Vesalius will receive $80 million upfront and could make up to $570 million in additional milestone payments, plus royalties from future sales for its preclinical program. For each new treatment target, Vesalius stands to gain further milestone payments and royalties, but the exact amounts remain undisclosed.
Like Parkinson’s, many other neurodegenerative diseases manifest differently from patient to patient, which means that treatment may not work the same way for everyone. Vesalius is working to establish links between clinical patterns and networks of genes, which it believes could help identify targets, or intervention points, for more effective treatment.
“Many of the diseases that impact patients globally have a single diagnosis, when in fact they comprise multiple different diseases, each with distinct biological causes,” said Mendlein, an executive partner at Flagship. For example, Parkinson’s “has [a] tremendous unmet need, and the number of new intervention points has changed very little in sixty years for patients and their families.”
Kaivan Khavandi, MD, PhD, global head of respiratory/immunology research and development at GSK, added, “our alliance with Vesalius underscores GSK’s commitment to the discovery and development of disease modifying therapeutics in areas of significant unmet need. Using the Vesalius platform to understand underlying drivers of such neurodegenerative diseases and select optimal therapeutic interventions underscores our focus on leveraging advanced technology to identify and target the root causes of disease.”
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