The collaboration will see COUR and Roche’s Genentech leverage the biotech’s antigen-specific immune tolerance platform to develop and commercialize therapies for an undisclosed autoimmune disease.
Ten months after closing a $105 million series A round, Chicago-based biotech COUR Pharmaceuticals has a new power partner in Roche’s Genentech. Tuesday, the companies announced a collaboration to develop and commercialize treatments for an autoimmune disease.
The deal will see Roche pay COUR $40 million upfront and in near-term milestone payments, while development, commercial and net sales milestone payments could exceed $900 million. COUR could also be eligible for tiered royalties. Under the agreement, COUR will be responsible for preclinical development and technical transfer of manufacturing, while Genentech will handle clinical development, regulatory filing and commercialization.
“Genentech has a long history of innovation, and we are excited to collaborate on the development of disease-modifying therapies leveraging COUR’s proprietary tolerance platform for the treatment of an autoimmune disease,” Dannielle Appelhans, president and CEO of the biotech, said in a statement.
Appelhans, who was promoted to CEO in September after founder John Puisis stepped down, told Endpoints News the company had been in talks with Genentech for a few years and finally crystallized the agreement after deciding on an undisclosed autoimmune indication.
Based on its proprietary antigen-specific immune tolerance platform, COUR’s therapies are designed to reprogram the immune system to address the underlying root cause of immune-mediated diseases, according to the company. COUR has standalone programs in myasthenia gravis (MG) and type 1 diabetes. The MG asset entered a Phase Ib/IIa trial in October. The diabetes candidate is in preclinical studies and could enter the clinic next year, according to Endpoints.
Roche is not COUR’s first big partner. The biotech is also teamed up with Takeda on a celiac disease treatment, for which the larger company is spearheading development. COUR had been partnered with Ironwood Pharmaceuticals on a mid-stage primary biliary cholangitis asset, but the Boston-based company announced last month that it cut ties with the program after seeing Phase II data.
In January, COUR reeled in $105 million in a series A round co-led by Lumira Ventures and Alpha Wave Ventures, with participation from Roche Venture Fund, Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb, among others.
