Roche, along with Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, AbbVie, Eli Lilly and others, is making inroads into molecular glues to use in cancer, immunology and other applications.
Roche subsidiary Genentech is paying $105 million, and up to more than $2 billion total, to deepen its ongoing relationship with Orionis Biosciences, kicking off a second multi-year agreement to develop small-molecule monovalent glues for cancer.
Molecular glues are small molecules that stick two proteins together. With its second Orionis contract, Roche is strengthening its foothold in the therapeutic space that in recent years has attracted growing attention from some of the industry’s heaviest hitters. Bristol Myers Squibb, for instance, became one of the earliest Big Pharma players in this space in 2019, when it bought Celgene for $74 billion and gained control of its molecular glues, including the blockbuster cancer drug Revlimid.
Roche followed suit in 2023, with its subsidiary Genentech fronting $47 million—and putting up to $2 billion on the line—for its first partnership with Orionis, which likewise focused on cancer but also targeted neurodegeneration.
Then, 2024 saw an influx of major drugmakers entering the ring. In February that year, Novo Nordisk linked up with Neomorph in a potential $1.46 billion deal to tap into Neomorph’s molecular glue platform, spread over multiple rare disease and cardiovascular targets. Novo wasn’t the only powerhouse partner that Neomorph picked up last year, with Biogen in October betting up to $1.45 billion to leverage the biotech’s molecular glue discovery technology for neurological and immunology indications. Takeda also joined the rush last year with a $1.2 billion agreement with the Chinese biotech Degron Therapeutics in May.
The molecular glue train appears to be going strong this year. AbbVie in January enlisted Neomorph—which now has at least three Big Pharma collaborators—for up to $1.64 billion to develop molecular glue candidates for oncology and immunology indications. Eli Lilly followed in February with a potential $1.25 billion partnership with Magnet Biomedicine.
As per this new agreement announced Wednesday, Orionis will take charge of candidate discovery and optimization while Genentech will take the lead over the assets’ late preclinical work, clinical development and regulatory and commercial activities. In addition to the more than $2 billion in research, development, commercial and net sales milestones, Orionis will be eligible for tiered royalties on any product under the collaboration that hits the market.
Outside the molecular glue space, Roche has also inked a handful of high-ticket deals this year. In April, for instance, the pharma paid $35 million upfront and pledged up to $730 million in milestones to partner with Repertoire Immune Medicines. The partners will develop T cell–targeting therapies for a yet undisclosed autoimmune target.
In March, Roche entered a potential $5.3 billion agreement with Zealand Pharma, gaining access to its amylin analog petrelintide for weight loss. Roche also committed up to $1 billion to collaborate with China’s Innovent for an antibody-drug conjugate for lung cancer.
