Friday, December 12, 2008

Synta Pharmaceuticals earns $15M milestone payment from GSK

By Mass High Tech staff

Biopharmaceutical company Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. has pulled in a $15 million milestone payment from GlaxoSmithKline for the development and commercialization of elesclomol, Synta’s drug for programming cell death in cancer cells.

The milestone payment follows a prior payment of $25 million that GlaxoSmithKline made to Synta (Nasdaq: SNTA) two months ago for bringing Elescomol into its current Phase 3 clinical trials for its use, in combination with paclitaxel, to treat metastatic melanoma. The company expects to complete Phase 3 enrollment in early 2009.

The original collaboration agreement, established in October 2007, calls for GSK to pay up to $585 million to Synta in development and regulatory milestone payments, with $145 million related to melanoma and $440 million for other cancer indications.

Synta has also begun a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of the drug to help treat hormone refractory metastatic prostate cancer.

In January, Synta and GSK were granted “orphan” drug incentives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for elesclomol. The orphan status provides the firms with seven years of market exclusivity if the drug is approved. It also gives the companies tax credits and a reduction in FDA user fees, according to the firms. Orphan status is granted for treatments that treat diseases found in 200,000 or fewer Americans.

Synta is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing chemical-based or small molecule drugs for cancer and other diseases.