GSK has announced that it will be acquiring Aiolos Bio for approximately $1.4bn, marking a notable boost to the company’s respiratory and inflammatory disease pipeline.
The deal grants GSK access to Aiolos’ AIO-001, a long-acting anti-thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) monoclonal antibody ready to enter phase 2 clinical development to treat asthma, with the potential for additional indications including chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.
Targeting the TSLP pathway addresses a key driver of the inflammatory response in major allergic and inflammatory diseases, GSK outlined, adding that early studies of AIO-001 have shown “initial safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and biological activity” in both healthy participants and asthma patients.
The candidate also has the potential to be administered every six months due to its enhanced potency and half-life extension technology, the company said.
There are an estimated 315 million patients living with asthma worldwide.
Tony Wood, chief scientific officer at GSK, said: “Adding AIO-001, a potentially best-in-class medicine targeting the TSLP pathway, could expand the reach of our current respiratory biologics portfolio, including to the 40% of severe asthma patients with low T2 inflammation where treatment options are still needed.”
Under the terms of the agreement, GSK will pay Aiolos $1bn upfront and up to $400m in certain success-based regulatory milestone payments. GSK will also be responsible for success-based milestone payments and tiered royalties owed to Hengrui Pharma, which licensed AIO-001 to Aiolos.
Khurem Farooq, chief executive officer of Aiolos, said: “We believe that this transaction speaks to the high potential of our long-acting anti-TSLP monoclonal antibody, AIO-001.
“By uniting with GSK… we’re confident that we can rapidly advance this therapy in the hopes of significantly reducing the treatment burden for patients.”
The acquisition comes less than one month after GSK entered into an agreement to exclusively licence Hansoh Pharma’s clinical-stage antibody-drug conjugate (ADCs) in a deal worth more than $1.7bn.
HS-20093 is a novel B7-H3-targeted ADC being developed for a range of solid tumour types, including lung cancer, sarcoma, and head and neck cancers.
The candidate has already demonstrated clinical activity in small cell lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and sarcoma, according to data from the early-stage ARTEMIS-001 trial.