Roche has penned a backloaded $2 billion deal with hematology biotech Atavistik Bio to develop allosteric small molecules for cardiometabolic diseases.
Under the agreement, the Swiss pharma will pay Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Atavistik $70 million up front, with the promise of potentially up to $1.9 billion to follow in milestone payments. In return, the companies will use Atavistik’s metabolite-protein screening (AMPS) platform to “identify novel functional binding pockets” on proteins that could form the basis for new treatments for cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases (CVRM), according to a Sept. 24 release.
Atavistik is tasked with discovery and research activities, before Roche takes over for further preclinical work and beyond.
Atavistik touts its platform as a way to “uncover cryptic, biologically relevant binding pockets” in order to generate small molecule drugs against targets that are typically difficult to modulate.
The biotech’s lead asset is ATV-1601, an oral allosteric inhibitor of AKT1 that is undergoing a phase 1/2 study for hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, a severe, multi-organ disease. Atavistik also has allosteric JAK2 selective inhibitors in preclinical development for myeloproliferative neoplasms.
Those programs have been bankrolled by $160 million in series B funds raised over the past year from the likes of RA Capital Management and Regeneron Ventures.
“This collaboration reflects the strength and broad applicability of our platform across therapeutic areas, further validating our approach to allosteric drug discovery,” Atavistik CEO Bryan Stuart said in the release.
“We are excited to extend the application of our platform into CVRM diseases by leveraging Roche’s deep expertise in the field, while we remain focused internally on advancing a robust pipeline of potentially best-in-class therapies for patients with rare hematologic diseases,” Stuart added.
CVRM is outside Roche’s historical core focus, which has predominantly been in oncology with major drugs like Avastin and Herceptin and, more recently, in rare disease and the approval of its spinal muscular atrophy treatment Evrysdi. However, the company has been expanding its presence in this area, including by shifting this work into a dedicated research campus in Boston.
Roche has also ramped up deals and pacts in the CVRM space in recent years as it looks to get into markets that could yield new blockbusters. This included a partnership with Alnylam and its RNAi hypertension therapeutic zilebesiran, spending $3.5 billion for 89bio and its fatty liver disease drug, as well as stocking its obesity and diabetes pipeline via the $2.7 billion takeover of Carmot Therapeutics.
“Treating CVRM diseases remains a core strategic priority for Roche,” Boris Zaïtra, head of corporate business development at the pharma, said in the release. “By pairing Atavistik Bio’s novel approach to discovering allosteric small molecules with our expertise in disease biology and drug development, we aim to translate complex science into transformative, oral small-molecule therapeutics for patients who need them most.”