GSK retains option to license rare disease candidate at clinical proof-of-concept stage.

Isis Pharmaceuticals has received a $5 million milestone payment from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on the selection of a new development candidate as part of the firms’ recent RNA therapeutics collaboration centered on rare and infectious diseases. The partnership was signed in March. Isis will now progress the new candidate to the Phase II proof-of-concept stage, at which point GSK will have the option to license it for further development.

“We are pleased to have achieved this milestone so early in our collaboration with GSK,” comments Stanley T. Crooke, M.D., chairman and CEO at Isis. “Under this new model of partnership we are able to retain control of this asset to facilitate its rapid development, while benefitting from GSK’s expertise and focus in rare diseases, and financially, from milestone payments even before GSK exercises its license option.”

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