Psoriasis treatment trials begin; $10M GSK milestone payment to come

A new psoriasis treatment being developed by a California drug development company has entered human trials, triggering a $10 million milestone payment from partner GlaxoSmithKline.

ChemoCentryx, based in Mountain View, California, announced Wednesday the start of a phase I trial on CCX832, a small molecule that blocks the effects of a protein linked to inflammatory skin disease, such as psoriasis.

ChemoCentryx and GSK (NYSE:GSK) entered into a partnership in 2006 to discover, develop and commercialize new medicines for the treatment of a variety of inflammatory disorders. The deal gave London-based GSK, which has its U.S. headquarters in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, access to ChemoCentryx’s pipeline. Privately held ChemoCentryx received a $63.5 million upfront payment and the potential to earn up to $1.5 billion in milestone payments. The agreement gives GSK the exclusive option to license products for further development and commercialization worldwide. ChemoCentryx will receive royalties on all product sales resulting from the collaboration.

Research firm Decision Resources projects that the psoriasis drug market in the United States, most of Europe and Japan will double from $3.4 billion in 2009 to $6.8 billion in 2019. The National Institutes of Health estimates that as many as 7.5 million Americans have psoriasis, a disease of the immune system characterized by dry red patches on the skin covered with scales. The exact cause of psoriasis is not known, but a medical breakthrough from a new psoriasis treatment would give GSK a drug of its own to address the condition. Stiefel Laboratories, a GSK subsidiary focused on skin products, last year signed an agreement with Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) to promote Amgen’s anti-inflammatory Enbrel to dermatologists in the United States.

ChemoCentryx President and CEO Thomas Schall said in a prepared statement that with the completion of the drug discovery phase of its GSK alliance, the biopharma is now expanding its efforts into other programs outside of the GSK partnership. Schall said ChemoCentryx is working on programs in cancer, liver and kidney disease and the next generation of medicines for inflammatory bowel disease.