Genentech buys Regor's next-gen CDK inhibitors for $850M

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech Regor Therapeutics Group has agreed to sell its portfolio of CDK inhibitors for the treatment of breast cancer to Roche's Genentech for an upfront cash payment of $850 million, the companies announced today.

"Genentech is well-positioned to bring these novel therapeutics to their full potential to benefit patients with breast cancer around the world," Xiayang Qiu, founder and CEO of Regor, said in a statement. "We are proud of the strong data we have generated to date. We look forward to bringing more innovative therapies to patients around the world."

The upfront payment could be supplemented with additional cash payments if certain "development, regulatory, and commercial milestones" are met. The company did not disclose the milestones or the value of those payments.

Under the terms of the deal, Genentech will take over clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialisation, while Regor continues to manage ongoing phase 1 trials.

Regor's primary product in breast cancer is RGT-419B and, if it pans out, it will be the only CDK4 inhibitor in refractory ER+/HER2- breast cancer with single agent efficacy. Regor announced the results from a Phase1A dose escalation study last December. In a study of 12 patients, it was shown to be safe and well tolerated, as well as showing promising signs of monotherapy efficacy.

The company, which leverages a proprietary computer-accelerated drug discovery platform it calls CARD, has assets in metabolic disease and autoimmune, as well as oncology. Those assets, including some GLP-1s, are not included in the deal.

This is not the first big pharma deal for Regor: in 2021, the company entered into a strategic research collaboration with Eli Lilly around its metabolic pipeline. That deal included a $50 million upfront payment. 

CDK inhibitors, which treat cancer by blocking overactive cyclin-dependent kinases, are big business in breast cancer. Earlier this month an approval for Novartis's CDK inhibitor Kisqali gave it a leg up over Eli Lilly's Verzenio. Roche has a number of drugs in the market for breast cancer, but this would be its first CDK inhibitor.