Business
GSK to acquire efimosfermin
GSK to acquire efimosfermin.
About this update from Gsk Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\nIssued: 14 May 2025, London UK\n \nGSK to acquire efimosfermin, a phase III-ready potential best-in-class specialty medicine to treat and prevent progression of steatotic liver disease (SLD)\n \n· Affecting up to 5% of the global population, SLD represents an area of significant unmet medical need with limited treatment options\n· Phase II data show potential of efimosfermin to reverse liver fibrosis, demonstrated in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (a form of SLD)\n· Unique properties offer potential for efimosfermin to be a new standard-of-care\n· Significantly expands GSK's hepatology pipeline aimed at addressing steatotic and viral drivers of liver disease, offering multiple development options and potential first launch in 2029\n \n\n\nGSK plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) and Boston Pharmaceuticals, a leading clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing highly targeted therapies for patients with serious liver diseases, today announced that they have entered into an agreement under which GSK will 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.\n \nEfimosfermin is a novel, once-monthly fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) analog therapeutic in clinical development for the treatment of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), including cirrhosis, and future development in alcohol-related liver disease (ALD), both forms of SLD. Given efimosfermin's direct antifibrotic mechanism of action and GSK's data-driven insights from work in human genetics and disease phenotyping, it has potential to address more advanced stages of SLD and opportunity in combination with GSK'990, a siRNA therapeutic in development for other subsets of patients with SLD.\n \nThe acquisition of efimosfermin is highly aligned to GSK's R&D focus on science related to the immune system and is further evidence of the company's intent to build on its deep understanding of fibrosis and auto-inflammation to develop precision interventions that s...