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ARTICLE | Company News

GSK hands off dermatitis, psoriasis candidate to Dermavant

July 12, 2018 6:31 PM UTC

The Dermavant Sciences dermatology subsidiary of Roivant Sciences GmbH (Basel, Switzerland) will shell out £150 million ($200 million) up front to GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK) to receive global rights to atopic dermatitis and psoriasis candidate tapinarof (GSK2894512, WBI-1001). The deal excludes China and is expected to close this half. The pharma is also eligible for £100 million ($133 million) in milestone payments.

GSK has completed two placebo-controlled Phase IIb studies of tapinarof in patients with atopic dermatitis and plaque psoriasis, respectively. In both trials, tapinarof led to clinically meaningful readouts on the primary endpoints of improvements in Physician or Investigator Global Assessment scores...