Roche’s Genentech ($ROG) is pairing up with Hanmi Pharmaceutical to gain access to its Phase I pan-RAF inhibitor. The Seoul, South Korea-based company is signing over exclusive worldwide rights to the oral, solid tumor candidate, excluding its home country.
Hanmi is getting an upfront of $80 million with an additional up to $830 million in development, regulatory and commercialization milestones and a tiered double-digit royalty on certain products that may result from the deal.
“This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to bringing the best science in the world to Genentech with the ultimate goal of developing life-changing therapies for people with cancer,” said Dr. James Sabry, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Genentech Partnering, in a statement. “We are excited to partner with Hanmi and leverage their scientific insights to develop novel therapies that target the MAPK pathway.”
The candidate at the center of the deal is HM95573, which is a selective pan-RAF inhibitor, which was developed to target B-RAFmut and/or N-RASmut/C-RAF driven solid tumors.
RAF kinases consist of three sub-types: A-RAF, B-RAF and C-RAF. They are among the mitogen activated protein kinases known as MAP Kinase (MAPK), which transduce signals in cells. B-RAF and C-RAF, in particular, are known to be associated with particular cancers.
Hanmi has been active in R&D deals with major biopharmas across a range of indications. Last year, it grabbed a diabetes deal with Sanofi ($SNY) that’s worth up to $4.2 billion, an up-to-$730 million deal with Boehringer Ingelheim in lung cancer, and an up to $690 million deal with Eli Lilly ($LLY) in autoimmune disease.