Kymera Therapeutics is celebrating the signing of two partnerships, with Gilead Sciences taking an option on one molecular glue programme, as Sanofi buys into another.
Eli Lilly on Friday put more than $1.6 billion on the line in a licensing deal with Boston biotech Magnet Biomedicine, adding another pharma powerhouse to the already-crowded, already-competitive molecular glue space.
Protein degradation–focused Neomorph nabs its third Big Pharma deal of around $1.5 billion in less than a year.
In a licensing deal that could reach up to $1.64 billion, AbbVie is teaming up with Neomorph to develop molecular glue degraders, a modality that has caught Big Pharma’s attention of late, with Biogen, Novartis, Takeda and Novo Nordisk all striking deals last year and potentially throwing over $6 billion into the space. Biogen’s and Novo’s deals were also with Neomorph.
Biogen is the latest big biotech to make a play in protein degradation. The Massachusetts-based company has announced a deal to use Neomorph’s molecular glue degrader discovery platform to go after tough targets in Alzheimer’s and rare neurological and immunological diseases, the company announced in an Oct. 29 release.
Big Pharmas remain stuck to the idea of molecular glue degraders. The latest company to see an opportunity is Japan’s Eisai, which has signed a $1.5 billion biobucks pact with SEED Therapeutics for undisclosed neurodegeneration and oncology targets.
Riding the growing wave of interest in molecular glue degraders, Takeda has partnered with Chinese biotech Degron Therapeutics to develop novel therapies for oncology, neuroscience and inflammation.
February’s announcement that Novo Nordisk was partnering with a biotech developing molecular glues to treat rare diseases was the latest in a series of expensive deals hoping to utilise the nascent technology.
Bristol Myers Squibb is offering Roivant's VantAI up to $674 million biobucks in a new partnership aimed at designing molecular glues as small-molecule therapeutics.
Roche has signed its second molecular glue deal in a month, this time paying $50 million upfront to Monte Rosa Therapeutics for the use of its QuEEN platform to target cancer and neurological diseases previously considered out of reach.