Pharma BD Deal Intelligence

GlaxoSmithKline plc / Domantis Limited

2006 · Acquisition/Merger · $454M · Complete

WRONG BY 64 POINTS

Nearly 20 years and roughly $454M later, GSK's dAb platform bet has produced no approved drug — the flagship Domantis-derived TNFR1 program was discontinued after immunogenicity failures, and GSK even lost core dAb patent protection to rival Ablynx.

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The coverage arc

Dec 11, 2006 FierceBiotech (GSK release) Bullish

GSK announced acquisition of Domantis for £230M cash; Domantis to integrate into GSK's Biopharmaceuticals Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery in Cambridge,…

Dec 11, 2006 Science|Business Neutral

Science|Business flagged the high price for an exclusively preclinical portfolio: '£230M for a preclinical portfolio' raised eyebrows on platform-acquisition…

Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.

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Domain antibody (dAbs) platform; GBP 230M; Cambridge UK biotech

Did it work? Outcome assessment

Nearly 20 years and roughly $454M later, GSK's dAb platform bet has produced no approved drug — the flagship Domantis-derived TNFR1 program was discontinued after immunogenicity failures, and GSK even lost core dAb patent protection to rival Ablynx.

Strategic verdict
Failed to Achieve

Key facts

Related deals — scored

DealYearValueOutcome
GlaxoSmithKline plc / Domantis Limited (this deal)2006$454M24
GlaxoSmithKline plc / Theravance, Inc.2012$213M82
GlaxoSmithKline plc / Tesaro Inc.2018$5.1B79
GlaxoSmithKline plc / Pfizer Inc. (Consumer Healthcare Division)2018$12.7B76
GlaxoSmithKline plc / Novartis Consumer Healthcare JV2018$13.0B74
GlaxoSmithKline plc / ID Biomedical Corporation2005$1.4B64
GlaxoSmithKline plc / Vir Biotechnology Inc.2020$595M51

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