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Dive Brief:
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Roche’s Genentech unit will pay privately held Orionis Biosciences $105 million to kick off a second joint effort to develop molecular glues, this time with an exclusive focus on cancer.
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The latest deal follows a collaboration announced in 2023 aimed at “challenging targets” for major disease areas, including oncology and neurology. Like that transaction, the new partnership comes with the possibility of more than $2 billion in payments for reaching certain research, development and sales goals in addition to royalties, Orionis said Wednesday.
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As part of both multi-year collaborations, Orionis is tasked with the discovery and optimization of the molecular glues, and Genentech is responsible for development in the later preclinical and clinical stages. Genentech would also handle regulatory filings and marketing of any successful therapies that emerge from the partnership.
Dive Insight:
Molecular glues have attracted the attention of a number of large pharmaceutical companies, including Merck & Co., Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca and Pfizer. Scientists are hoping the therapies can be used to destroy destructive proteins in the body that have previously been difficult to target.
The glues have the ability to force together two proteins that otherwise wouldn’t normally interact. Once they connect, the disease-causing protein can be tagged for degradation by the body’s own cleanup system.
Researchers say the technology holds the promise to address what they have considered “undruggable” targets in the body. After Genentech entered its first partnership with Orionis for its Allo-Glue platform in September 2023, parent company Roche struck a similar deal in October 2023 with Monte Rosa Therapeutics.
The Swiss drugmaker is increasingly on the lookout for licensing deals as some of its best sellers face competition from generic medications.
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