Cambridge, MA — Epizyme, Inc. EPZM +9.15% , a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company creating innovative personalized therapeutics for patients with genetically defined cancers, today announced the achievement of the lead candidate milestone for the third of the three histone methyltransferase (HMT) targets in the company’s collaboration with GSK and is receiving $4 million in milestone and license payments.
Previously, Epizyme announced the achievement of a $4 million development candidate milestone for the first GSK collaboration target in January 2014 and a $2 million lead candidate selection milestone for the second GSK collaboration target in February 2014.
“Epizyme’s proprietary product platform is an ongoing source of potential novel therapeutic candidates for the treatment of genetically defined cancers as we translate the science of epigenetics into innovative personalized therapeutics for cancer patients,” said Robert Copeland, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Epizyme. “Since we began our collaboration with GSK in 2011, we have identified novel small molecule inhibitors for all three collaboration HMT targets, a significant accomplishment in a short period of time in a new therapeutic class.”