International law firm Simmons & Simmons has advised GSK on a strategic alliance with Muna Therapeutics to accelerate the development of novel treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
As part of a multi-year collaboration with GSK, Muna – a biotechnology company focused on developing innovative therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases– will leverage its MiND-MAP platform to identify and validate novel drug targets for the treatment of Alzheimer’s.
Under the agreement, Muna will receive an upfront payment from GSK of €33.5 million, and will be eligible to receive up to €140 million per target in milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on net sales of products.
Muna will expand and enhance its existing MiND-MAP dataset and will lead the identification and validation of new Alzheimer’s disease targets. GSK will lead drug development and be responsible for preclinical activities, clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialisation resulting from work on targets discovered and validated in the collaboration.
The Simmons team advising GSK on the research alliance was led by intellectual property partner and healthcare and life sciences specialist, Lydia Torne, supported by supervising associate James Agnew.
Lydia Torne commented: “This is an exciting, innovative collaboration which opens up a new pathway to discover and develop treatments for Alzheimer’s. It was a pleasure for our team to support GSK on securing its strategic alliance with Muna.”
