GlaxoSmithKline Acquires Rights to Vaccine for Alzheimer's

GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals S.A. (GSK, London, UK) and AFFiRiS GmbH (Vienna, Austria) have announced a collaboration agreement that grants GSK exclusive rights to AFFiRiS’s Alzheimer’s disease vaccine programs that aims at treating Alzheimer’s by targeting the beta-amyloid protein.

As part of the agreement, GSK is acquiring exclusive rights to develop and commercialize two Alzheimer’s disease vaccine candidates that are based on the AFFiRiS AFFiTOPE technology and are currently in Phase 1 clinical development. AFFiRiS is also granting GSK an exclusive option to develop and commercialize alternative Alzheimer’s disease vaccine candidates that are in preclinical development.

Under the terms of the agreement, AFFiRiS will receive an up-front payment of approximately $29 million and could be eligible for future milestone payments and royalties. The total potential value of the agreement could reach approximately $555.5 million in the event of full commercial success of the candidate vaccines. This agreement is subject to governmental authority approval.

Central to the deal is the AFFiRiS AFFiTOPE technology, which allows the design of proteins with very specific binding characteristics that are suited for the development of vaccines against disease-causing ‘rogue’ human proteins, such as beta-amyloid, which is central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease.

GSK release