The alliance will add to Roche’s RNAi efforts, which include the hypertension candidate zilbesiran, partnered with Alnylam under a July 2023 agreement.
Roche’s dealmaking train continues to chug along, with the pharma licensing a novel RNA interference therapy from SangeneBio.
Under the terms of the agreement, Roche, through its Genentech subsidiary, will front $200 million with an additional promise of up to $1.5 billion in development and commercialization milestones, according to a Monday press release. Details of the program were kept under wraps—the partners did not specify what indication they plan to work on, nor any specific molecular targets. The companies will use SangeneBio’s RNAi technology to work on “potential breakthrough siRNA medicines for multiple disease areas,” according to the announcement.
SangeneBio will take charge of early development and Genentech will be responsible for clinical studies and commercialization. If the program reaches the market, SangeneBio will be entitled to tiered royalties.
The licensing deal will beef up Roche’s own RNAi pipeline, which currently includes zilebesiran, being developed for hypertension in patients with high cardiovascular risk. The pharma is working on zilebesiran with Alnylam under a July 2023 pact worth up to $2.8 billion. In August 2014, Roche swallowed Santaris Pharma, a specialist in RNA-targeting medicines, for $450 million.
With Monday’s agreement, SangeneBio joins the growing list of partners that Roche has recently added to its roster. In September last year, for instance, the pharma made a major metabolic move with the acquisition of 89bio for $3.5 billion. It followed this in November with a blood-brain barrier bet with Manifold Bio potentially worth more than $2 billion, and to close the year, Roche put up to $1.1 billion on the line to join with Caris Life Sciences in a solid tumor-focused collab.
Roche has maintained its dealmaking pace into the new year, putting down $570 million for an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) from China-based MediLink. Downstream milestones weren’t disclosed for this agreement.
