GBT Expands Sickle Cell Disease Pipeline with Worldwide Licensing Agreement for Inclacumab for the Treatment of Vaso-occlusive Crisis

Global Blood Therapeutics (NASDAQ:GBT) announced today that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche for the development and commercialization of inclacumab, a novel fully human monoclonal antibody against P-selectin. GBT plans to develop inclacumab as a treatment for vaso-occlusive crises (VOC) in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD).

As quoted in the press release:

Under the terms of the agreement, GBT will be responsible for all development, manufacturing, and commercialization of inclacumab worldwide. Roche will receive an upfront payment of $2.0 million from GBT and is eligible to receive up to approximately $125 million in development and commercialization milestone payments for the sickle cell disease indication. Additionally, Roche is eligible to receive tiered royalties based on net revenues for inclacumab.

“We have been working diligently to diversify our product pipeline through both internal research and external business development efforts and are excited to have entered into this agreement for inclacumab,” said Ted W. Love, M.D., president and chief executive officer of GBT. “We are committed to developing transformative treatments for the SCD community and becoming the preeminent SCD company. Inclacumab is an ideal complement to voxelotor, our lead investigational oral, once-daily therapy, in Phase 3 clinical development for SCD. Like voxelotor, inclacumab has a strong scientific rationale and has the potential to provide significant clinical benefit for SCD patients.”

Click here to read the full press release.