With an eye toward a medicine for asthma that is still in the testing phase, British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline decided to purchase Aiolos Bio on Tuesday for a possible sum of up to $1.4 billion.
Through the acquisition, GSK will have access to AIO-001, a long-acting antibody that is prepared to move into Phase II clinical trials for the management of adult asthma patients.
GSK said in a statement that the drug has the “potential to… reach a broader portion of asthma patients”.
The company that first created AIO-001, Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, exclusively licensed the asthma medication to Aiolos outside of China.
Following the spinoff of consumer healthcare subsidiary Haleon in 2022, GSK is making a stronger push into its core drugmaking business with the purchase of Aiolos Bio, which is situated in both London and San Francisco.
“We have a proud heritage and deep development expertise in respiratory medicines,” GSK’s chief scientific officer Tony Wood said in the statement.
“Adding AIO-001, a potentially best-in-class medicine… could expand the reach of our current respiratory biologics portfolio.”