Five Prime Therapeutics, based in South San Francisco, Calif., has expanded its respiratory disease research collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline established in 2012 to identify first-in-class agents and new mechanisms for the treatment of refractory asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The scope of the collaboration was increased in April to include two additional respiratory disease discovery programs for a six-month evaluation period, and GSK now has committed to continue these two discovery programs for an additional 18 months.

Five Prime will receive $2 million in research funding for this expansion, $0.5 million of which Five Prime already has received. In the event that GSK licenses a target discovered by Five Prime in the collaboration, Five Prime also would be eligible to receive up to $193.8 million in potential option exercise fees and milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on global net sales for each product resulting from a selected drug target.