Here's a simple way to think about it: GSK plc (GSK) just spent $950 million to buy a ticket to a very expensive, very promising scientific party. The host is a private Canadian biotech called 35Pharma, and the main attraction is an experimental drug named HS235 for pulmonary hypertension (PH).
PH is basically high blood pressure, but in the arteries of your lungs instead of your arm. It makes you short of breath, tired, and can eventually lead to heart failure. It's a big problem, affecting roughly 82 million people worldwide. The market for treatments is forecast to be worth $18 billion in about eight years, and GSK wants a bigger piece of it.
So, what's so special about this ticket? HS235 isn't the first drug to target the "activin signalling pathway," which is a known way to treat this type of lung disease. The clever part is in the design. Think of the pathway like a lock, and the drug is a key. Older keys might fit the lock but also jiggle around in a few other, similar locks nearby, causing unwanted side effects like bleeding. GSK says HS235 is a more precise key, designed to fit the main lock (the activin receptor) better while reducing its interaction with other nearby locks (called BMP9 and BMP10). The goal is the same therapeutic effect with fewer nasty surprises for patients.
Tony Wood, GSK's Chief Scientific Officer, put it in broader, more exciting terms. He said the drug's "potential protective effects on vascular function, alongside potential benefits on fat-derived markers of metabolism and inflammation, also offer new development opportunities within our RI&I portfolio to achieve broader coverage across the metabolic, inflammatory, vascular and fibrotic drivers of multiple chronic diseases that affect the lung, liver and kidney." In other words, they're not just buying a lung drug; they're buying a platform that could potentially treat a whole suite of related chronic conditions.
The 35Pharma deal is actually the third move in a recent flurry of activity for GSK's checkbook. Just the day before, they inked an exclusive global licensing deal with Frontier Biotechnologies Inc. for two of its Small Interfering RNA (siRNA) pipeline products. Frontier gets $40 million upfront and could earn up to $963 million more if certain milestones are hit. Frontier will handle early work in China, and then GSK takes over for global development and sales.
And let's not forget the big one from earlier this year. In January, GSK agreed to snap up RAPT Therapeutics Inc. (RAPT) for about $2.2 billion. That buy was all about ozureprubart, a long-acting antibody currently in mid-stage trials that could protect people with severe food allergies.
Put it all together, and you see a pattern: GSK is shopping. They're spending billions to bring new, specialized drugs into their research and development pipeline, betting on everything from food allergies to lung and liver diseases. Investors seemed to like the latest news; GSK shares were up about 1% in premarket trading Wednesday, inching closer to the stock's 52-week high.
