Epizyme Achieves Lead Candidate Selection Milestone in GSK Collaboration, Earning $2 Million Milestone

Epizyme, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company creating innovative personalized therapeutics for patients with genetically defined cancers, has announced the achievement of the lead candidate selection milestone for one of the histone methyltransferase (HMT) targets in the company's collaboration with GSK. This achievement triggers a milestone payment of $2 million and follows the announcement in January 2014 of the achievement of a development candidate milestone for another of the HMT targets in the collaboration, which earned Epizyme a $4 million milestone payment.

"Epizyme is a leader in the translation of the science of epigenetics into innovative personalized therapeutics for cancer patients," said Robert Copeland, PhD, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Epizyme. "This milestone reflects the power of our product platform to rapidly move from biological insights to novel therapeutic candidates."

"Our collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies are an integral part of Epizyme's business strategy as we build an independent biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and commercializes personalized therapeutics for cancer patients," said Jason Rhodes, President and Chief Financial Officer, Epizyme.