In a move designed to bolster it's hepatitis C offerings, GlaxoSmithKline is buying Redwood City, CA-based Genelabs Technologies for $57 million. GSK will pay $1.30 per share for outstanding Genelabs stock. Genelabs will become part of GSK's Drug Discovery organization and its HCV programs will be consolidated with its existing pipeline. The deal will likely close in December.
"Genelabs has demonstrated a strong track record in HCV drug discovery and identified numerous novel classes of inhibitors that target unprecedented mechanisms in the virus's life cycle," stated Zhi Hong, SVP of the Infectious Diseases Centre for Excellence in Drug Discovery at GSK. "This arrangement, combined with our other collaborations, will give GSK a broad HCV drug discovery platform addressing novel targets and innovative therapeutic approaches."
- see GSK's release