GSK terminates Five Prime Therapeutics mesothelioma collaboration
pharmafile | March 14, 2016 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Five Prime Therapeutics, GSK, mesothelioma
GSK is to back out of a licensing deal with California-based Five Prime Therapeutics to develop a mesothelioma drug.
Announcing full-year and Q4 2015 financial results, Five Prime also revealed GSK had given it a 180-day termination notice for the FP-1039 license and collaboration agreement. GSK inherited the drug from Human Genome Sciences four years ago, after buying the company for $3 billion.
FP-1039 is currently in Phase Ib development for mesothelioma – a cancer linked with asbestos exposure. In January, the companies decided to stop enrollment of patients into the study arm for squamous non-small cell lung cancer (sqNSCLC) trials, saying immunotherapies had changed the treatment paradigm.
However, Five Prime said it would continue to work with GSK to enroll mesothelioma patients before the deal ends in six months’ time based on encouraging preliminary data from the mesothelioma arm of the trial.
The companies will also still partner on respiratory R&D – including work on treatments for refractory asthma and COPD. The pair signed their second collaboration agreement in 2012. Five Prime also partnered with Bristol-Myers Squibb last year.
Financial
It was better news in the financials department for FPT however, with the company’s stock rising more than 8% after it beat analysts’ earnings per share expectations by almost a dollar – reporting EPS of $10.63. Revenures also rose hugely from Q4 2014, to $363.3 million, up from the $4.6 million reported for the same period last year.
Joel Levy
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