Pharma Firms Make Payouts

GlaxoSmithKline has exercised an option with ChemoCentryx to license Traficet-EN, a small-molecule CCR9 chemokine receptor antagonist targeting inflammatory bowel diseases. In exchange, ChemoCentryx will get $35 million and possible future milestone payments. Separately, Targacept has received its first payment of $200 million under a collaborative agreement with AstraZeneca. The partners are planning to begin Phase III trials of Targacept’s antidepressant therapy, TC-5214, in mid-2010. Targacept could receive more than $1 billion more in potential milestone payments, though it must give an undisclosed percentage to the University of South Florida Research Foundation.