Roche and Molecular Partners have entered into a research collaboration and licensing agreement to discover, develop and commercialize several proprietary therapeutics incorporating Molecular' DARPin biologics conjugated to toxic agents developed at Roche for the treatment of cancer.
DARPin-drug conjugates are expected to be an exciting new class of drugs providing the potential of improved efficacy with substantial patient benefit compared to the current therapies.
The company said that DARPins are non-antibody-based small proteins where a variable region has been engineered for target binding.
The small size and high binding affinity of the DARPins allow them to hone in on and penetrate deep into solid tumors, thus they are ideal targeting agents to deliver toxic agents to tumors to kill cancer cells.
Compared to other biologics including antibody drug conjugates, DARPins are said to have a higher selectivity for tumor cells due to their ability to bind to different epitopes than antibodies, and by binding to multiple epitopes or targets in parallel at the same time.
Roche head of Large Molecule Research Sylke Poehling said the DARPin platform is truly complementary to the company's internal capabilities in the large molecule space.
"In the field of drug conjugates, we have identified an excellent opportunity to combine our expertise with the leading company in non-antibody scaffold technology to develop transformative cancer medicines," Poehling said.
Molecular Partners chief executive officer Christian Zahnd said by combining Roche's technical and commercial expertise with the company's DARPin R&D expertise, it can rapidly develop a pipeline of highly differentiated products offering a novel approach to treating patients far more quickly than it could do independently, offering new hope for patients with unmet medical need.
"The DARPin-drug conjugate is an exciting new product direction for us alongside our internal proprietary DARPins and our existing partnerships in ophthalmology and immunology," Zahnd said.
As part of the deal, Roche has rights to develop and commercialize several DARPin-based products, while Molecular Partners is eligible to receive upfront and initiation payments up to CHF55m ($61m).
Additionally, Molecular will receive research funding and can earn more than CHF1bn ($1.1bn) if all development and sales milestones are met for all potential products as well as receive tiered royalties on any future product sales into the double-digit percentage range.
