Biotech companies are partnering with other biotech companies to combine their cutting-edge technology platforms in hopes of opening up new avenues for drug development.
It’s not uncommon for pharmaceutical companies to look to biotech companies for innovative technologies. In today’s news, biotech companies are partnering with other biotech companies to combine their cutting-edge technology platforms in hopes of opening up new avenues for drug development.
Monte Rosa and Yeda Partner on Molecular Glue Degraders
Monte Rosa Therapeutics inked a license and research collaboration deal with Dr. Nir London and the Yeda Research and Development Company, the commercial division of the Weizmann Institute of Science. They will work together on identifying and developing novel covalent molecular glue degrades using covalent ligand-directed release (CoLDR) technology.
They will focus on using covalent chemical inhibitors to target selective cargo release, for example, anti-cancer drugs or probes. It can also be used for molecular labeling. They believe it can also be applied to targeted protein degradation, including novel molecular glue degraders for cancer and other diseases. Molecular glue degraders use the body’s natural mechanisms to eliminate therapeutically relevant proteins selectively. Monte Rosa has developed a protein degradation platform, QuEEN (Quantitative and Engineered Elimination of Neosubstrates), that allows for fast identification of protein targets and molecular glue degrader (MGD) product candidates.
Molecular glues can degrade proteins that are otherwise unligandable, meaning, the molecules don’t bind. This is usually done by creating direct interactions between target and ligase.
“We are thrilled to partner with Dr. London and his team at the Weizmann Institute to utilize CoLDR technology to advance the field of targeted protein degradation through the identification of novel E3 ligases and covalent E3 ligase recruiters suitable for molecular glue degradation,” said Sharon Townson, chief technology officer of Monte Rosa. “Through this research collaboration, we hope to not only expand the E3 ligase-target universe—we hope to further unlock therapeutically relevant proteins that were previously considered inadequately drugged by other small molecule approaches.”
In November 2021, Monte Rosa announced its first development candidate, MRT-2359, targeting GSPT1 for cancers driven by one of the Myc family genes. At that time, Dr. Markus Warmuth, chief executive officer of the company, said, “Preclinical data recently presented at AACR-NCI-EORTC underscores the potential of our molecular glue degraders to differentially induce cell death in Myc-addicted tumors. With the selection of MRT-2359 as our lead candidate, we are now positioned to rapidly advance our clinical development plan in both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. We have initiated IND-enabling studies and look forward to submitting our first IND to the FDA in mid-2022.”
Twist Partners with Artisan on Next-Generation Cell Therapies
Twist Bioscience entered an agreement with Artisan Development Labs to discover novel antibodies against five undisclosed targets. They also have an option to expand the deal with additional targets. Under the terms of the deal, Twist will utilize its proprietary Library of Libraries to find novel antibodies directed against Artisan’s immunotherapy targets. Artisan will utilize its Immune Cell Engineering Foundry and STAR Guides to develop custom cell therapeutics. Artisan is paying Twist upfront technology access and project fees for each program, as well as clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, and royalties on any commercial products.
“Twist’s novel and diverse libraries provide access to a wide range of unbiased antibodies,” said Ryan T. Gill, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Artisan Bio. “We look forward to bringing together the massively parallel DNA synthesis platform of Twist with our own massively parallel cell engineering platform to develop the next generation of cell therapeutics.”
