Germany's Cellzome has inked a second drug discovery pact with GlaxoSmithKline in the field of inflammatory disease. Under the terms of the agreement, Cellzome will receive about $44.79 million in upfront payments.

The companies will use Cellzome's Episphere technology to identify small molecule candidates against targets from four different epigenetic classes. After they identify candidates, GSK will take over all preclinical and clinical development, as well as commercialization. If all programs under the alliance are successfully developed and commercialized, additional milestone payments could exceed $645 million, according to GSK.

Cellzome and GSK signed their first inflammatory disease collaboration in September 2008. Through this partnership, the companies hope to identify and develop selective kinase inhibitors using Cellzome's Kinobeads technology. Cellzome also has partnered with Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Bayer HealthCare and Novartis on various projects.

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