Pharma BD Deal Intelligence

GlaxoSmithKline plc / Genmab A/S (ofatumumab/HuMax-CD20)

2006 · Co-Development · $2.1B · Complete

WRONG BY 40 POINTS

GSK's oncology bet on Arzerra flopped commercially; it then sold off the asset that became Novartis's multi-billion-dollar MS blockbuster Kesimpta, capturing only a capped royalty/milestone stream of the eventual upside.

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The coverage arc

Dec 19, 2006 CNBC/Reuters Bullish

Genmab shares surged as much as 24% to an all-time high; Jyske Bank analyst Frank Andersen raised his rating to 'buy', forecasting peak ofatumumab sales of…

Dec 20, 2006 PharmaTimes Bullish

PharmaTimes framed the GSK alliance as potentially worth over GBP 1 billion to Genmab, a transformative validation of the small Danish biotech's…

Aug 01, 2014 Wikipedia (citing GSK/Genmab/FDA primary docs) Bearish

Novartis acquired ofatumumab rights from the GSK-Genmab collaboration in 2014, and Arzerra was withdrawn from non-US markets by 2019 as commercial uptake…

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

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Anti-CD20 mAb (Arzerra); $102M upfront + $357M equity + up to $1.6B milestones; record biotech license deal at the time

Did it work? Outcome assessment

GSK's oncology bet on Arzerra flopped commercially; it then sold off the asset that became Novartis's multi-billion-dollar MS blockbuster Kesimpta, capturing only a capped royalty/milestone stream of the eventual upside.

Strategic verdict
Failed to Achieve

Key facts

Related deals — scored

DealYearValueOutcome
GlaxoSmithKline plc / Genmab A/S (ofatumumab/HuMax-CD20) (this deal)2006$2.1B35
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

Compare all 7 side-by-side →

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