GSK li­cens­es Ion­is' ex­per­i­men­tal hep B treat­ments in up to $262M deal

GSK $GSK may have walked away from two of Io­n­is’ $IONS an­ti­sense drugs (in­clud­ing the now-ap­proved Tegse­di) in 2017 — but the British drug­mak­er held on as a part­ner to the biotech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny’s ex­per­i­men­tal he­pati­tis B treat­ments.

On Tues­day, GSK ex­er­cised its op­tion to li­cense Io­n­is’ drugs — IO­N­IS-HB­VRx and IO­N­IS-HBV-LRx — fol­low­ing pos­i­tive mid-stage da­ta. In re­turn, Io­n­is re­ceives up to $262 mil­lion in mile­stone pay­ments, in­clud­ing a $25 mil­lion li­cense fee. In ad­di­tion, Io­n­is is al­so el­i­gi­ble to re­ceive tiered roy­al­ties on net sales. Now, GSK is re­spon­si­ble for all de­vel­op­ment, reg­u­la­to­ry and com­mer­cial­iza­tion ac­tiv­i­ties and costs for the two drugs.

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