GSK has struck a deal worth up to $1.15bn (£950m) to acquire a Massachusetts-based developer of rare cancer therapies, in an attempt to bolster its expanding oncology business.
GSK, Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker behind AstraZeneca, said the acquisition of IDRx, based in Plymouth near Boston, would help it target a “major gap in the current standard of care” related to gastrointestinal cancers.
The company, which was set up two-and-a-half years ago, is working on treatments for gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST), a rare cancer that develops in the digestive system, and is diagnosed in 80,000 to 120,000 new patients worldwide each year. Two-fifths of cases are driven by mutations in the KIT gene that lead to the growth of tumour cells, most commonly in the stomach or small intestine.
The US company’s lead treatment, IDRX-42, targets those mutations. The company has published promising data from an early-stage clinical trial in patients with advanced GIST.
Tim Clackson, the chief executive of IDRx, said: “We are looking forward to working with GSK to advance IDRX-42 for patients with GIST given there have been no major advances to the standard of care for almost 20 years.
“Combining our experience to date with GSK’s expertise in GI cancers, global clinical development capability and strong commercial presence in oncology will help to accelerate the development of this novel medicine for patients.”
Tony Wood, the GSK chief scientific officer, said the company was “excited by the early data from IDRX-42” and hoped to accelerate its development this year to “redefine treatment”.
There are no approved drugs, known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, that inhibit the full spectrum of primary and secondary mutations in the KIT gene.
IDRx was launched in August 2022 by the entrepreneurs Ben Auspitz and Alexis Borisy, who have both invested in US biotech firms over the past two decades, to develop precision cancer medicines. Christoph Lengauer, a non-executive at the research specialist Cancer Research Horizons and a “drug hunter”, acts as scientific adviser.
The business is backed by the Californian venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz and the New York-based Casdin Capital.
The company’s pipeline of drugs, including IDRX-42, was acquired through licence agreements with the German drugmaker Merck and Massachusetts-based Blueprint Medicines.
after newsletter promotion
GSK has a growing portfolio of drugs in development targeting gastrointestinal cancers. It is paying $1bn upfront for IDRx and a further $150m in milestone payments if the company’s lead treatment is successful and approved by regulators.
The rate at which people under the age of 50 in the UK are dying from bowel cancer was forecast to rise by a third last year because of a surge in obesity, poor diets and physical inactivity, according to a 2024 study.
The GSK chief executive, Emma Walmsley, has been making acquisitions to boost key areas, after slimming down the overall drugs portfolio when she took over in 2017. Sales of vaccines, one of GSK’s strengths, have been falling. It makes the RSV vaccine Arexvy and the shingles jab Shingrix.
