A roundup of bio/pharmaceutical partnering news from Roche/Flare Therapeutics, Novo Nordisk/Ascendis Pharma and Royalty Pharma/Syndax. 

* Roche, Flare Therapeutics In $1.8-Bn Small-Molecule Cancer Drug Pact
* Novo Nordisk, Ascendis In $285-M+ GLP-1 Pact  
* Royalty Pharma, Syndax in $350-M Royalty Deal for Rare-Disease Drug 

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Roche, Flare Therapeutics In $1.8-Bn Small-Molecule Cancer Drug Pact 
Roche and Flare Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based bio/pharmaceutical company, have entered into a strategic discovery collaboration worth up to $1.8 billion ($70 million upfront, $1.8 billion in milestone payments, for identifying small-molecule undruggable drugs in oncology. 

This partnership will use Flare Therapeutics’ proteomic and mass spectrometry platform and proprietary library of electrophilic compounds to discover small-molecule drugs aimed at previously undrugged transcription factor targets in oncology. 

As part of the collaboration, Flare Therapeutics will receive a $70-million upfront cash payment and is eligible to receive discovery, development, and commercialization milestone payments potentially exceeding $1.8 billion and royalties. Flare Therapeutics will lead discovery and preclinical activities targeting multiple transcription factor targets in oncology while Roche will pursue the further preclinical and clinical development and commercialization of potential products from the collaboration.  

Source: Flare Therapeutics 

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Novo Nordisk, Ascendis In $285-M+ GLP-1 Pact  
Novo Nordisk and Ascendis Pharma, a Hellerup, Denmark-based bio/pharmaceutical company, have entered an agreement under which Novo Nordisk has been granted an exclusive worldwide license to Ascendis’ TransCon technology platform to develop, manufacture, and commercialize Novo Nordisk proprietary products in metabolic diseases (including obesity and Type 2 diabetes) and a product-by-product exclusive license in cardiovascular diseases, in a deal worth up to $285 million.  

The agreement includes provisions requiring certain TransCon technology-based products to be identified and advanced in metabolic diseases to maintain exclusivity in the field and additional provisions for cardiovascular diseases. Under the agreement, Novo Nordisk also receives exclusive rights to expand any resulting metabolic disease products into other therapeutic areas. The lead program in the collaboration is a once-monthly GLP-1 receptor agonist product candidate that will initially target obesity and Type 2 diabetes. 

In exchange for the license, Ascendis will be eligible to receive total payments of up to $285 million in upfront, development, and regulatory milestone payments for the lead program. In addition, Ascendis will be eligible to receive sales-based milestone payments and tiered royalties on global net sales. For each additional metabolic or cardiovascular disease product candidate, Ascendis will be eligible to receive payments of up to $77.5 million in development and regulatory milestone payments, plus sales-based milestone payments and tiered royalties on global net sales. 

Ascendis will conduct early development of TransCon product candidates under the collaboration. Novo Nordisk will be responsible for these early development costs and for clinical development, regulatory, commercial manufacturing, and commercialization. 

The closing of the transaction is subject to receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and the parties are seeking to close before the end of 2024. 

Source: Ascendis Pharma 

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Royalty Pharma, Syndax in $350-M Royalty Deal for Rare-Disease Drug 
Royalty Pharma, a New York-based bio/pharmaceutical company, and Syndax Pharmaceuticals, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based bio/pharmaceutical company, have entered into a $350-million synthetic royalty funding agreement with Syndax based on US net sales of Syndax’s Niktimvo (axatilimab-csfr), a chronic graft-versus-host disease drug. 

Under the agreement, Syndax received an upfront payment of $350 million in exchange for a 13.8% royalty on US net sales of Niktimvo. Royalty payments to Royalty Pharma will cease upon reaching a multiple of 2.35x. 

Source: Royalty Pharma