Roche has opted to discontinue a collaboration with Massachusetts-based Blueprint Medicines, handing back the global commercialization and development rights (excluding China) to cancer drug, Gavreto.
Gavreto is a once-daily oral targeted therapy approved by the FDA for three indications: metastatic RET fusion-positive NSCLC, advanced or metastatic RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer, advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer. RET (or RET proto oncogene) is a gene that plays a role in cell signaling.
Roche handed Blueprint $775 million to kick off the deal in July 2020 and has since given the precision therapy company approximately $1 billion between upfront and milestone payments and from cost-sharing the commercialization and development.
According to Blueprint, Roche scrapped the deal "for strategic reasons." The transition will be made slowly. Per the deal, the termination will be effective a year from the notification date of February 22, 2023. The ex-partners will work to ensure a smooth transition process with no anticipated interruptions or changes to patient access.
