The German conglomerate announced a licensing agreement with Puhe BioPharma for a PRMT5 inhibitor used in a variety of cancers. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
German giant Bayer is the latest Big Pharma company to look to China in building its pipeline, entering into a licensing agreement with Chinese biotech Puhe BioPharma to develop one of Puhe’s oncology drugs.
The deal, announced Wednesday, centers on an orally available PRMT5 inhibitor targeted at a subset of cancers called MTAP-deleted tumors. These are cancer types that, due to loss of the MTAP gene, are particularly sensitive to drugs like Puhe’s molecule that target particular metabolic pathways.
Bayer is getting an exclusive worldwide license to develop and manufacture the PRMT5 inhibitor, which will henceforth be known as BAY 3713372. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Loss of the MTAP gene occurs in a variety of tumor types, including those with few treatment options and poor prognosis, such as pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma,” Dominik Ruettinger, global head of research and early development for oncology at Bayer, said in the company’s press release.
According to Bayer, BAY 3713372 is currently being studied in a global Phase I dose escalation trial in patients with MTAP-deleted solid tumors.
The deal puts Bayer in a race with at least three other big pharmas, all pursuing PRMT5 inhibitors in the same indication, MTAP-deleted tumors. AstraZeneca is conducting the Phase I/II PRIMROSE trial for its candidate, AZD3470, while Bristol Myers Squibb is in Phase I and I/II trials for MRTX1719 and Amgen is recruiting for its own Phase I trial of AMG 193.
The partnership continues a trend of multinationals going to China to secure new molecules. On Tuesday, Merck committed up to $2 billion toward a lipid lowering drug from Jiangsu Hengrui, following Novo Nordisk, which the previous day pledged up to $2 billion for a new triple-G obesity drug from United Laboratories. AstraZeneca put down the largest pot, paying up to $4.4 billion for molecules from Harbour BioMed’s immunology pipeline, up to $3.4 billion to Syneron Bio for undisclosed targets in rare diseases, and finally $2.5 billion to build a new research and development center in Beijing, for a total of about $10 billion in investments.
