S-P Signs Biotech Alliance For Asthma

Schering-Plough has entered into a large-scale deal with GenomeTherapeutics to use genomics to discover new therapeutics for treating asthma. The deal could be worth up to $67 million to Genome, excluding royalties, with about $22.5 million coming from license fees and research funding and $44.5 million coming from milestone payments.

Genome will identify asthma-related genes and proteins for S-P, from a series of asthmatic families in the south of England, and S-P will use this data for the design and development of pharmaceuticals which strike at the underlying disease, rather than just ameliorating its symptoms.

S-P is the leading US company in the asthma sector, which is dominated by European firms such as Astra and Glaxo Wellcome. These firms are already competing in the race to find the genetic basis for some forms of asthma.