GSK is paying to access ABL Bio’s Grabody-B platform, which potentially enables therapies to cross the blood-brain barrier.
GSK is fronting £38.5 million (nearly $50 million), in a partnership with South Korea’s ABL Bio to develop novel drugs for neurodegenerative diseases.
Aside from its upfront payment, GSK will also be on the hook for up to £2.075 billion ($2.66 billion) in research, development, regulatory and commercialization milestones, spread across the deal’s several potential programs. All told, the deal could mean more than a $2.5 billion windfall for ABL Bio.
At the center of Monday’s agreement is the South Korean biotech’s proprietary Grabody-B platform, which makes use of a novel targeting mechanism that allows bulkier therapeutic molecules to pass the blood-brain barrier.
According to the biotech’s website, ABL Bio’s approach leverages a bispecific antibody engineered to bind to the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptors, which are found on the cells that make up the blood-brain barrier, and in which turn allows the molecule to be shuttled across the barrier.
As per Monday’s deal, ABL Bio will transfer Grabody-B-related technologies and expertise to GSK. GSK will then be responsible for preclinical and clinical development, as well as taking charge of manufacturing and commercialization activities. ABL Bio will be entitled to tiered royalties on net sales of any product that results from this partnership.
GSK has not disclosed specific target indications, though Christopher Austin, senior vice president of Research Technologies, said in a prepared statement on Monday that the ABL Bio partnership is part of the pharma’s push to address “neurodegenerative brain diseases,” particularly those that are becoming more common “due to the aging of the population.”
GSK has pushed deeper into the neuro space in recent months. In December 2024, it paid $35 million upfront to partner with Danish biotech Muna Therapeutics to get access to its MiND-MAP platform.
GSK will be able to work on “multiple, high-value, validated” Alzheimer’s disease targets under the Muna partnership, though it hasn’t yet disclosed a specific number. For each target, Muna will be entitled to up to roughly $148 million in milestones.
In November 2024, GSK also partnered with Vesalius Therapeutics to leverage its proprietary platform, which according to Vesalius combines genomics, stem cells and AI, and use that platform to develop novel therapies for Parkinsons’s disease and another neurodegenerative disease. The pharma paid $80 million upfront and also pledged up to $570 in milestones for one preclinical program. Vesalius will also be entitled to undisclosed milestones and tiered royalties for each novel target.
