Roche and Nurix Therapeutics will advance their BTK degrader for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, as well as immunology and neurology indications.
Roche is adding another protein degrader to its arsenal in a deal with Nurix Therapeutics worth up to $3 billion and focused on a development program for B cell malignancies.
Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will pay the California company $700 million upfront and pledge up to $2.3 billion in development, regulatory and sales milestones, according to a Monday morning release. The partners will co-develop and co-commercialize bexobrutideg, an investigational BTK degrader, with Roche shouldering 60% of development costs.
Roche and Nurix will equally split profits and losses for the drug in the U.S., while the pharma will be primarily responsible for bexobrutideg abroad, with Nurix being eligible for royalties in the low- to high-teens. The companies expect to close the transaction in the third quarter.
“We view the partnership as sensible and validating for [bexobrutideg’s] clinical profile, including its potential safety differentiation,” analysts at Truist Securities told investors in a Monday note. For Nurix, specifically, the group said the agreement is “necessary to address a key overhang around the capital intensity and execution risk” that comes with advancing BTK degraders.
Nurix surged 21% to $17.74 before the opening bell on Monday, after announcing the Roche deal.
Bexobrutideg is an orally available protein degrader that binds and destroys BTK, a central signaling molecule involved in the development, growth and immune activity of B cells. While the common BTK approach is to deactivate the protein, bexobrutideg uses the cell’s own machinery to degrade BTK, in turn potentially overcoming the problem of treatment resistance with the class.
The partners are planning to push bexobrutideg into Phase 3 development for chronic lymphocytic leukemia this summer, according to Roche’s release.
Beyond this indication, the partnership will cover “a clinical development plan spanning B-cell malignancies, immunology and neurology,” though the companies haven’t yet specified other target diseases.
For Roche, the Nurix deal comes months after it put up to $1 billion on the line to expand its ongoing protein degrader engagement with C4 Therapeutics (C4T). For $20 million upfront, the pharma in April added two degrader-antibody conjugates (DAC) to its partnership, as well as the option to nominate and advance another target.
DACs consist of an antibody, which seek out proteins on cancer cells, and molecular glue degraders, which bridge the target tumor and the cell’s trash disposal mechanism—ultimately leading to the destruction of the cancer cell. Roche and C4T haven’t specified what diseases they will go after, only noting that they will target certain oncology indications.
