GSK to acquire rights to liver disease drug efimosfermin

15 May 2025

Aiming to expand its hepatology portfolio, UK pharma major GSK (LSE: GSK) yesterday announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Boston Pharmaceuticals’ lead asset, efimosfermin alfa.

Efimosfermin is a Phase III-ready, potential best-in-class, investigational specialty medicine to treat and prevent progression of steatotic liver disease (SLD). Under the agreement, GSK will pay $1.2 billion upfront, with potential for additional success-based milestone payments totalling $800 million. Boston Pharma previously in-licensed the FGF21 analogue - also known as BOS-580 - from Novartis (NOVN: VX) in 2020.

The pur­chase comes as investor wor­ries about the strength of GSK’s drug pipeline have weighed on the share price over the past year, even as its financial res­ults last month beat expect­a­tions. It launched a rare £2 billion share buy­back in Feb­ru­ary.

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