Monte Rosa Therapeutics Announces Strategic Collaboration with Roche to Discover Novel Molecular Glue Degraders Targeting Cancer and Neurological Diseases

Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc. announced it has entered into a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with global healthcare leader Roche to discover and develop MGDs against targets in cancer and neurological diseases previously considered impossible to drug.

“We are excited to partner with Roche, a leading healthcare and one of the world’s top oncology companies. Our QuEEN™ discovery engine, a highly validated and industry-leading molecular glue degrader platform, has been the cornerstone for Monte Rosa’s success, driving the discovery and development of our exquisitely selective MGDs successfully into the clinic. This collaboration will enable and accelerate expansion of our platform into neuroscience and additional areas of oncology. We believe our decision to partner with Roche, a company that shares our vision and drive, will amplify our collective strengths and capabilities to accelerate the development of transformative treatments for patients across several indications,” said Markus Warmuth, M.D., CEO of Monte Rosa Therapeutics.

James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head of Pharma Partnering at Roche, added: “We believe that molecular glue degraders are a powerful new class of small molecules that target disease-related proteins that traditional approaches have been unable to address. Together with Monte Rosa, we look forward to tackling high-value targets in both oncology and neuroscience with the goal of unlocking new therapeutic possibilities.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Monte Rosa Therapeutics will receive an upfront payment of $50 million, and is eligible to receive future preclinical, clinical, commercial and sales milestone payments that could exceed $2 billion, as well as tiered royalties. The parties also agreed on a mechanism to expand the collaboration on multiple targets within the first two years. In that case, additional payments for nomination, preclinical, clinical, commercial and sales milestones are due, as well as tiered royalties on the resulting products. Monte Rosa Therapeutics will lead discovery and preclinical activities against multiple select cancer and neurological disease targets to a defined point. Roche gains the right to exclusively pursue further preclinical and clinical development of the compounds. Monte Rosa retains full ownership of its pipeline programs.