Arrakis to Enter into $190 Million Collaboration with Roche for Small Molecule Drug Discovery

Arrakis Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company based in Waltham, MA, announced on April 8, 2020 that it is entering into a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Roche for the discovery of RNA-targeted small molecule (rSM) drugs for $190 million.

Through the agreement, Arrakis will receive an upfront payment of $190 million in cash and will have the potential to receive preclinical, clinical, commercial, and sales milestone payments and royalties for any resulting products, an Arrakis press release said. Additionally, Arrakis will oversee discovery and research activities for each drug target to a certain point, at which Roche will be able to pursue added preclinical and clinical development.

“We are excited to partner with Roche’s strong research and development teams. Together, we share a common vision of accessing new drug targets at the RNA level and thereby discovering novel medicines to treat diseases with high unmet medical need. The collaboration will increase the number of new treatments for patients arising from our proprietary rSM discovery platform,” said Michael Gilman, PhD, CEO of Arrakis, in the press release. “In addition to the Roche collaboration, we are further building our capabilities and advancing our wholly-owned rSM programs for diseases unaddressed by today’s medicines.”

“Through our pioneering work in RNA biology, we have built a platform for creating and adapting drug discovery tools that allow us to predict and validate the structure of RNA targets, locate druggable pockets, identify drug-like hits, and conduct medicinal chemistry programs to discover a new class of RNA-targeted medicines optimized for potency, selectivity, and safety. This agreement with Roche underscores the value inherent in our rSM platform and will enable us to continue to make leading discoveries and further scientific contributions in the field,” said Jennifer C. Petter, PhD, founder and chief scientific officer of Arrakis, in the press release.

Source: Arrakis