Roche’s Genentech has signed a new collaboration with Japan-based PeptiDream focused on the discovery and development of novel macrocyclic peptide-radioisotope ('peptide-RI') drug conjugates.
Under the agreement, PeptiDream will use its proprietary drug discovery and development platform — dubbed 'PDPS' (Peptide Discovery Platform System) — to discover, optimize and develop macrocyclic peptide candidates for use as peptide-RI drug conjugates against targets of interest to Genentech. The platform enables the production of highly diverse (trillions) non-standard peptide libraries with high efficiency, for the identification of highly potent and selective macrocyclic peptide candidates, which then can be developed into peptide-based, small molecule-based, or peptide-drug conjugate based therapeutics and diagnostics.
According to PeptiDream, the new collaboration and license agreement builds upon the long collaborative relationship between the companies, which started with a multi-target collaboration and license agreement in December 2015, followed by Genentech licensing PeptiDream’s PDPS technology in 2016, and expansion of the companies’ collaboration in 2018.
Under the terms of the newest deal, PeptiDream will receive an upfront payment of $40 million from Genentech and be eligible for milestone payments potentially up to $1 billion.
PeptiDream has inked similar deals with several major drugmakers, the most recent being Astellas back in July. The two entered into a research collaboration and license agreement to use PeptiDream's PDPS to discover novel protein degraders for two specific targets selected by Astellas. Per the deal, Astellas handed PeptiDream $21 million upfront and could pay up to $146 million per target in milestones.
