Roche and Monte Rosa Therapeutics have entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement aimed at discovering and developing molecular glue degraders against targets in cancer and neurological diseases, with the deal potentially worth over $2bn.
The partnership will utilise Monte Rosa’s QuEEN discovery engine and capabilities in identifying novel molecular glue degraders, which are designed to reprogramme the cell’s natural recycling machinery to selectively eliminate disease-causing proteins.
The approach is believed to open up opportunities to eliminate therapeutically relevant proteins that are considered ‘undruggable’ by other small molecule approaches.
Monte Rosa will lead discovery and preclinical activities against multiple select cancer and neurological disease targets “to a defined point,” it explained in a statement, while Roche will have the right to exclusively pursue further preclinical and clinical development of the resulting candidates.
“Our QuEEN discovery engine, a highly validated and industry-leading molecular glue degrader platform, has been the cornerstone for Monte Rosa’s success, driving the discovery and development of our exquisitely selective molecular glue degraders successfully into the clinic,” said Markus Warmuth, chief executive officer of Monte Rosa.
“This collaboration will enable and accelerate expansion of our platform into neuroscience and additional areas of oncology,” he added.
Under the terms of the agreement, Monte Rosa will receive an upfront payment from Roche of $50m and will be eligible to receive future preclinical, clinical, commercial and sales milestone payments that could exceed $2bn, plus tiered royalties.
The partners have also agreed on an option to expand the collaboration on multiple targets within the first two years, in which case additional payments for nomination, preclinical, clinical, commercial and sales milestones are due, as well as tiered royalties on the resulting products.
James Sabry, global head of pharma partnering at Roche, said: “We believe that molecular glue degraders are a powerful new class of small molecules that target disease-related proteins that traditional approaches have been unable to address.
“Together with Monte Rosa, we look forward to tackling high-value targets in both oncology and neuroscience with the goal of unlocking new therapeutic possibilities.”
Earlier this year, Roche entered into a new partnership with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals worth $2.8bn to develop and commercialise a potential treatment for high blood pressure.
The candidate, zilebesiran, is an investigational, subcutaneously administered RNAi therapeutic in clinical development to treat hypertension in populations with high unmet needs.