GSK and Yale University to design potential new class of drugs
Partnership will take advantage of Yale’s work on PROTACs
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Yale University have established a new drug discovery research partnership to develop a potential new class of medicines that kill disease-causing proteins.
The partnership will combine GSK’s expertise in medicinal chemistry with Yale’s pioneering work on proteolysis targeting chimeric molecules (PROTACs). PROTAC technology guides disease-causing proteins to a cell’s ‘garbage disposal’ where they can be destroyed.
Mutant or higher-than-normal amounts of these proteins typically drive disease progression in areas such as oncology, inflammation and infections; yet many cannot be tackled by traditional ways of making drugs.
Under the agreement, a joint research team will work to show that PROTACs can be turned into future medicines. GSK will then have the right to use this technology for multiple disease-causing proteins across all therapy areas.
For each protein-degrading drug that is discovered and developed, Yale will be eligible for milestone and royalty payments.
‘This partnership is exploring a new way for promising, but unproven therapeutic approaches to jump from the academic lab more quickly into the early stage pharmaceutical pipeline,’ said Kris Famm, head of GSK’s Protein Degradation effort, who will lead the programme with Craig Crews, the Lewis B Cullman Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, and Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacology at Yale.
‘The ground-breaking work Craig and his team have done may allow us to tackle a whole host of disease-causing proteins that were previously out of reach for medicines, and it is exciting to work together to try to realise that promise,’ added Famm.
GSK’s Discovery Investment Board, the panel of internal and external experts who make funding decisions on GSK’s small biotech-like Discovery Performance Units (DPUs), has endorsed the collaboration.