Yuhan Corp., of Seoul, South Korea, has inked a ₩150 billion (US$108.6 million) deal with Korean biotech Ubix Therapeutics Inc. to gain exclusive global rights to UBX-103, Ubix’s oral small-molecule androgen receptor degrader for prostate cancer. Yuhan also announced July 1 that it gained the U.S. FDA’s nod to start a phase I study of a Gaucher disease drug candidate called YH-35995.
Sibylla Biotech Srl raised €23 million (US$22.9 million) in series A funding to progress its two lead programs in targeted protein degradation, to broaden its pipeline, and to enhance its computationally intensive discovery platform. The company is expanding the druggable proteome in a highly original fashion. It applies mathematical techniques originally developed in theoretical physics to simulating the intermediate folding states of target proteins that have no obvious drug-binding pockets. These may well have transient structures that a small molecule can bind. So instead of drugging the native, biologically active molecule, it aims to develop small-molecule drugs that lock them into an intermediate state. They are then eliminated by the usual protein degradation pathways that operate within cells.
Targeted protein degradation (TPD) specialist Plexium Inc.’s potential $565 million deal with Abbvie Inc. came on the heels of a tie-up with Amgen Inc. in February worth as much as $500 million-plus, as well as an oversubscribed $102 million financing the same month – all of which translates into “optionality, moving forward, to keep our heads down, do the work we’re really good at and continue to watch the market,” said CEO Percival Barretto-Ko.
South Korean companies Ubix Therapeutics Inc. and SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. are partnering to develop targeted protein degradation cancer therapies.
South Korean companies Ubix Therapeutics Inc. and SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. are partnering to develop targeted protein degradation cancer therapies.
Just weeks after signing a targeted RNA degrader deal with Arrakis Inc., Amgen Inc. has enlisted protein degrader specialist Plexium Inc. to a new deal in the high-profile field. "We're on the cusp of a new era of drug discovery, where medicines could function very differently than conventional ones do today," said Amgen's senior vice president of global research, Ray Deshaies.
Lucrative partnerships lately in the targeted protein degradation (TPD) space have shone an even brighter light on the already-intriguing approach, and among the firms to spark enthusiasm is Monte Rosa Therapeutics Inc., pursuing programs aimed solely at drugs that deploy molecular “glue” – an E3 ligase enzyme affixed to a target substrate.
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has begun a three-year collaboration with researchers at Australia’s WEHI, looking into a potentially powerful approach to targeted protein degradation also being studied by its German rival Merck KGaA.
LONDON – Phoremost Ltd. has raised $46 million in an oversubscribed series B that will enable it to put clinical heft behind its claim to have developed a novel approach to finding and drugging inscrutable targets.
