GSK is walking away from an expanded partnership deal with SpringWorks Therapeutics, winding down further research activities that would combine Blenrep and Ogsiveo.
The UK pharma sent SpringWorks a notice of termination on Thursday, which brings to a close their “amended and restated collaboration and license agreement” as announced in September 2022, an SEC filing shows.
SpringWorks received $75 million in equity and was eligible for up to $550 million in milestones, according to the 2022 deal. The pair were working to combine GSK’s Blenrep with SpringWorks’ Ogsiveo for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
Their collaboration started in 2019 when they inked a “clinical trial collaboration agreement” for the drugs. For now, GSK will continue partnered clinical activities through completion for the 27 patients enrolled in studies of the combo, with SpringWorks responsible for supporting product supply and future publication efforts, the Friday SEC filing shows.
In the 2019 announcement, the companies said GSK would drive an adaptive Phase 1b trial to evaluate the preliminary efficacy and safety of Blenrep-Ogsiveo.
The decision to terminate the licensing deal does not impact ongoing investigations within the DREAMM clinical development programme, according to a GSK spokesperson. Blenrep plus other anticancer treatments including Ogsiveo are in an ongoing 464-patient Phase 1/2 platform trial, dubbed DREAMM5, in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The trial has an estimated primary completion date of February 2026, according to ClinicalTrials.gov.
Ogsiveo won FDA approval in November for desmoid tumors and was launched shortly after. The oral gamma-secretase inhibitor is SpringWorks’ first commercial product and achieved net sales of $21 million in the first three months of the year, according to a company release.
Meanwhile, Blenrep was pulled from the multiple myeloma market in 2022 following a failed confirmatory study. GSK is plotting a comeback for the BCMA-targeting antibody-drug conjugate in combination with other anticancer agents, with an initial focus on pairing it with pomalidomide plus dexamethasone.
Earlier this month, the UK drugmaker touted positive progression-free survival data from the Phase 3 DREAMM-8 trial of Blenrep plus pomalidomide and dexamethasone. That success followed a separate positive readout in February from the Phase III DREAMM-7 test of Blenrep versus Darzalex on top of bortezomib and dexamethasone in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients who had at least one prior line of therapy.
Editor’s note: This article was updated to add a comment from a GSK spokesperson and further context.