Roche, Molecular Partners in cancer deal worth over $1 billion

Roche and Molecular Partners have entered into a research and licensing alliance to discover, develop and commercialize new cancer treatments. The agreement will incorporate Molecular Partners' DARPin® biologics conjugated to toxic agents developed at Roche for the treatment of cancer. DARPin-drug conjugates would be an exciting new class of drugs offering the potential of enhanced efficacy with substantial patient benefit over existing therapies.

"We are excited about this collaboration as the DARPin platform is truly complementary to our internal capabilities in the large molecule space. In the field of drug conjugates, we have identified an excellent opportunity to combine our expertise with the leading company in non-antibody scaffold technology to develop transformative cancer medicines."

Sylke Poehling, Head of Large Molecule Research at Roche.

"Roche is one of the top players in oncology and specifically the toxic payload field. By combining its technical and commercial expertise with our DARPin R&D expertise, we can rapidly develop a pipeline of highly differentiated products offering a novel approach to treating patients far more quickly than we could do independently, offering new hope for patients with unmet medical need. The DARPin-drug conjugate is an exciting new product direction for us alongside our internal proprietary DARPins and our existing partnerships in ophthalmology and immunology."

Christian Zahnd, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Molecular Partners.

Under the terms of the agreement, Roche has rights to develop and commercialize several DARPin-based products. Molecular Partners is entitled to receive upfront and initiation payments up to CHF 55 million. Furthermore, Molecular Partners will receive research funding and can earn more than CHF 1 billion if all development and sales milestones are met for all potential products.