Blueprint Medicines agrees $1 billion-plus deal with Roche for cancer therapy
pharmafile | March 16, 2016 | News story | Business Services, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Blueprint Medicines, Deals, Immunokinases, Roche, drug development
Blueprint Medicines Corp (Nasdaq: BPMC) said it has signed an over $1 billion deal with oncology drug giant Roche (SIX: ROG) utilising its drug discovery platform to develop five targeted cancer therapies.
Under the terms of the deal Blueprint is set to receive an upfront cash payment of $45 million and will be eligible for an additional $965 million in contingent option fees and milestone payments for all five collaborations.
Jeff Albers, chief executive of Blueprint Medicines, says: “We believe Blueprint Medicines’ proprietary drug discovery platform and expertise in immunokinases, combined with our proven ability to move quickly through drug discovery, is a perfect complement to Roche’s expertise with cancer immunotherapy biology and in developing and commercializing innovative therapies. Under this collaboration, Blueprint Medicines will lead preclinical research and development through Phase I proof of concept for all five programs and retain U.S. commercial rights for two programs. We believe this highly collaborative relationship will enable us to accelerate our efforts in the emerging field of cancer immunotherapy and to continue building a leading biotechnology company.”
The collaboration provides for the worldwide development and commercialization of immunokinases in the field of cancer immunotherapy for up to five small molecule drug candidates as single products or possibly in combination with Roche’s portfolio of therapeutics.
Immunokinases are intracellular targets known to regulate numerous aspects of immune response and represent an important opportunity for potentially innovative approaches to enhance the immune system’s ability to recognize and eradicate tumor cells.
Anjali Shukla
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