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GSK ACQUIRES BIOPHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY FOR $454 MILLION

December 18, 2006

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will acquire biopharmaceutical company Domantis for $454 million in cash, GSK announced.

The privately-owned company will join GSK's Biopharmaceuticals Centre for Excellence for Drug Discovery and continue to operate out of its facilities in Cambridge, UK. GSK said it expects the deal to close in January.

Domantis manufactures monoclonal antibodies based on the smallest functional binding units of human antibodies. Most laboratory-made antibodies have large molecular sizes, and can only be administered through injection or infusion, GSK said. Domantis' products, however, are small enough to be administered in inhaled, topical, injection or infusion forms. They can also be used as building blocks for therapeutics simultaneously directed at more than one disease target.

Currently, Domantis is researching diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and multiple myeloma.