HQ Team
October 28, 2024: Novartis AG, a global Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company, has agreed to pay Monte Rosa Therapeutics Inc., $150 million upfront to develop, manufacture and commercialise drug candidates, mainly in immunology.
Monte Rosa, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, is developing a class of small molecules called molecular glue degraders (MGD).
These are designed to induce the degradation of specific proteins within cells. They achieve this by enhancing the interaction between a target protein often associated with diseases and enzymes that tag proteins for degradation or “glueing” them together.
The molecules do not permanently bind to their targets. Instead, they promote the degradation process and then dissociate, allowing for multiple rounds of degradation.
Pipeline of MGD
Monte Rosa has developed a pipeline of MGDs, which spans oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory disease and has a strategic collaboration with Roche to discover and develop MGDs against targets in cancer and neurological diseases — previously considered impossible to drug.
Monte Rosa will receive up to $2.1 billion for achieving certain milestones, including sales, according to a statement from the company.
After the mid-stage trial of its immunology candidate MRT-6160 begins, Monte Rosa will get tiered royalties on ex-US net sales,
Monte Rosa will co-fund end-stage clinical development and share any profits and losses associated with the manufacturing and commercialisation of MRT-6160 in the US.
Phase I completion
MRT-6160 is in an ongoing early-stage trial for immune-mediated conditions and Monte Rosa will be responsible for its completion in the first phase.
“We expect this will accelerate and broaden the scope of clinical development of MRT-6160 to advance this unique, orally bioavailable modality while retaining substantial value for Monte Rosa,” said Markus Warmuth, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Monte Rosa Therapeutics.
“It further increases our conviction to rationally design and develop highly selective and safe MGDs for undruggable targets, including in the areas of immunology and inflammation, metabolism, and genetic diseases,” he said.
MRT-6160, during preclinical studies, resulted in a significant decrease in cytokines related to the immune-mediated conditions, with no detectable effects on other proteins, according to the statement.
“Novartis has had a long-standing interest in molecular glue degraders, which offer the potential to tackle challenging biological targets,” said Fiona Marshall, President of Biomedical Research at Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland.
