By the numbers: The R&D deal with Roche\u2019s Genentech is worth more than $515 million plus royalties and will draw on Astex\u2019s fragment-based drug discovery technology to target a cell-cycle-dependent regulator in breast cancer.<\/p>\n
Cambridge, UK-based Astex will also receive $25 million upfront.<\/p>\n
The deal: Astex, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tokyo\u2019s Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., will grant Genentech an exclusive licence to compounds from its existing drug discovery programme for breast cancer.<\/p>\n
It will collaborate with San Francisco-based Genentech to accelerate research and identify preclinical candidates from the programme.
\nAstex\u2019s drug discovery programme originated from an earlier collaborative project from a strategic alliance with Newcastle University and Cancer Research Horizons.<\/p>\n
Why it matters: Roche\/Genentech will hope the collaboration brings similar success to that seen by its big Swiss rival, Novartis, which collaborated with Astex to produce Kisqali (ribociclib), a CDK4\/6 inhibitor.<\/p>\n
Backstory: Kisqali was first approved in 2017 for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HR+\/HER2-) advanced or metastatic breast cancer.<\/p>\n
With the addition of other indications, Kisqali is a significant blockbuster for Novartis, with sales of $4.8 billion in 2025.
\nOther notable drugs to emerge from Astex are J&J\u2019s Balversa (erdafitinib), first approved in 2019 for metastatic bladder cancer, and AstraZeneca\u2019s Truqap (capivasertib), first approved in 2023 in combination with fulvestrant for patients with advanced HR-positive breast cancer.
\nFounded in 1999, Astex was acquired by Otsuka in October 2013 for around $866 million and operated from its two sites in the US and UK until January 2024, when the U.S. site became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Taiho Oncology Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the numbers: The R&D deal with Roche\u2019s Genentech is worth more than $515 million plus royalties and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[124],"tags":[14272,134],"class_list":["post-97977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-roche","tag-licensing","tag-roche"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116871856354283546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}