Kindred Spirits in Small Molecule Drug Discovery
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Kinetix Pharmaceuticals hoped that a focus on a particular class of targets that shares structural similarities--the protein kinases--would yield small molecules for a variety of therapeutic areas. But in order to realize synergies between multiple research projects in protein kinases, the company couldn't partner the projects out to numerous pharmaceutical partners, each requiring exclusivity and confidentiality. After technological rival Vertex signed a multi-million dollar protein kinase development partnership with Novartis, Kinetix began to rethink its original business model. A $170 million acquisition offer by Amgen Inc. made strategic sense for the start-up.