Hal Barron
One of Hal Barron’s foundational R&D deals at GSK has come crashing down, just a couple of months
after his formal departure from the helm
of the global research group. And there are signs in the wreckage that GSK is readying a slate of similar deal follow-ups following a strategic review as Tony Wood assumes full responsibility for the pipeline.
GSK partner Lyell, founded by ex-NCI chief Rick Klausner, put out word later on Monday that GSK has axed
their 2019 cell therapy alliance
, which Barron had snagged with a $250 million upfront — with billions more in milestones on the table — as he pointed the pharma giant to what he hoped was the forefront of the cell therapy 2.0 movement.
At the time, Klausner ran Lyell. But he was later replaced as CEO and then went on, with Barron, to dive into cell regeneration at Altos Labs with billions in backing.
Tuesday morning, Adaptimmune
$ADAP
followed up with the news that GSK is also punting its NY-ESO and PRAME programs, which the UK biotech framed as a positive development as they’re focused on the MAGEA4 program. Given its struggling share price and a common strategy to carefully budget cash reserves, though, the claim seems a bit of weak chutzpah at best.
What kind of biotech startup wins a $3B syndicate, woos a gallery of marquee scientists and recruits GSK's Hal Barron as CEO in a stunner? Let Rick Klausner explain
In the SEC filing, GSK reported it is scrapping programs targeting NY-ESO-1 after a strategic review triggered by data from its first-gen lete-cel effort from Adaptimmune. The terminations include “the second‑generation product candidates incorporating Lyell’s genetic and epigenetic reprogramming technologies (LYL132 and LYL331), as well as other second-generation approaches GSK was exploring. On October 24, 2022, GSK provided notice of its decision to terminate the License and Collaboration Agreement between the Company and GlaxoSmithKline Intellectual Property (No. 5) Limited and Glaxo Group Limited, dated as of May 23, 2019, as amended (the “GSK Agreement”). The termination is effective on December 24, 2022.”
Lyell’s understanding is that the discontinuation of these programs is based on a strategic review of GSK’s pipeline and follows Lyell’s update in August 2022 that GSK had received data from the study of its first-generation lete-cel product candidate (from Adaptimmune) in non-small cell lung cancer (“NSCLC”), which does not incorporate any of Lyell’s reprogramming technologies.
The Investigational New Drug (“IND”) application for LYL132 was cleared in January 2022 and the IND for LYL331 has not yet been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Given the early stage of these second-generation programs, the termination is not based on any clinical efficacy or safety data from these programs.
The move is “part of a number of strategic actions it is taking.”
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Barron intended the Lyell deal to help supercharge GSK’s lackluster R&D operations, matching the big, slow giant with a much smaller biotech that had attracted some of the most brilliant minds in oncology research.
And Barron included a warning ahead of the contract signing:
“Do not do this deal unless you’re convinced that this relationship will make it more likely that you will succeed.”