Don’t stop Monte Rosa Therapeutics now. The Boston-based biotech is having a ball after signing a deal with Novartis to the tune of $150 million for a molecular glue degrader, developed using the company’s QuEEN platform, that makes an autoimmune-disease-causing protein bite the dust.
In addition to the upfront cash, Monte Rosa can receive up to $2.1 billion in development, regulatory and sales milestones along with tiered royalties on sales outside the U.S., the company said in an Oct. 28 release.
The asset, MRT-6160, is “extremely representative of what the platform can do,” Monte Rosa CEO Markus Warmuth, M.D., told Fierce Biotech in an interview. “Undruggable target, extremely selective molecule, compelling preclinical safety package. That's what we really want to do over and over again.”
Monte Rosa will wrap up the current phase 1 trial of MRT-6160 in healthy volunteers, after which Novartis will take the reins and handle all further clinical development and commercialization. Interim data from the phase 1 trial should be reported in the first quarter of 2025, Warmuth said, with the goal of phase 2 trials also starting next year.
Novartis will also have the same exclusive rights to other molecular glue degraders that target the same protein, known as VAV1, according to the release.
Around this time last year, Monte Rosa signed a $50 million upfront deal with a different Swiss pharma giant, namely Roche, to turn the biotech’s QuEEN platform against cancer and neurological disease targets. But partnering with Big Pharmas to move assets through clinical development is not a general strategy, Warmuth said.
“There's lots of opportunities we still have in our portfolio where owning an asset longer, or even at some point commercializing it, makes a ton of sense,” he said. The company’s pipeline includes five public programs as well as others still being developed behind closed doors.
MRT-6160, like other molecular glue degraders, takes advantage of the body’s protein-disposal machinery to destroy targeted proteins. MRT-6160 binds to ubiquitin ligase and reshapes its surface so that it in turn can bind to VAV1, a signaling protein used by both T cells and B cells that is implicated in autoimmune diseases. The ubiquitin ligase then sends VAV1 down the protein-shredding pathway and into the trash heap.
In autoimmune disease, VAV1 helps control the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Targeting VAV1, rather than individual cytokines, is a “succinct mechanism of action, more immune-modulatory than immune-suppressive,” Warmuth said.
Because VAV1 is used by both T cells and B cells, going after it with MRT-6160 could work for a multitude of different autoimmune conditions. Some Monte Rosa has been looking at are ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis, Warmuth said, but all options—from big markets to small—are still open. The broad swath of potential indications, he added, is likely what made the drug attractive to Novartis.
Monte Rosa plans to use the Novartis windfall to keep moving the rest of its pipeline forward, Warmuth said. This includes spreading the wings of its molecular glue degraders to pursue targets in cardiovascular disease and metabolism.
“We’re really starting to think of this as a platform very much akin to RNAi platforms, and the breadth you can address there,” Warmuth said.