GSK Plc has reached an agreement to pay up to $1.4 billion to acquire Aiolos Bio Inc, an early clinical stage company with a respiratory product in-licensed from China. Unusually the upfront part of the deal is $1 billion, in excess of the $400 million in potential milestone payments which are contingent on reaching certain regulatory goals. The deal was announced on 9 January and will bolster GSK’s pipeline, which includes multiple respiratory products targeting interleukin 5 (IL-5), a powerful pro-inflammatory cytokine.
