Shares of Nurix Therapeutics (NRIX.US) surged in pre-market trading following news of a major licensing agreement with pharmaceutical giant Roche. The deal grants Roche rights to an experimental blood cancer drug, bexobrutideg, for up to $2.3 billion.
The agreement provides Nurix Therapeutics with an upfront payment of $700 million. Development costs for the drug will be shared between the two companies, and they will equally split profits from the U.S. market. Roche will be responsible for commercializing the therapy in regions outside the United States. The transaction is anticipated to close in the third quarter of 2026.
This partnership aligns with Roche's strategy to bolster its oncology portfolio. As several of its blockbuster drugs mature, the company is actively seeking new growth drivers. Roche is betting that bexobrutideg can help patients who have stopped responding to existing treatments.
Nurix Therapeutics focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing oral small molecule therapies designed to modulate cellular protein levels for treating cancer and immunological diseases. Its pipeline includes targeted protein degraders for Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) and inhibitors of Casitas B-cell lymphoma proto-oncogene-B (CBL-B).
Bexobrutineg is a novel oral BTK degrader developed by Nurix Therapeutics. Data presented last year showed promising efficacy in treating relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In a Phase 1a trial, the drug achieved an objective response rate (ORR) of 83% in evaluable patients, with a median progression-free survival of 22.1 months and a median duration of response of 20.1 months. Notably, these patients had previously received various treatments, including covalent and/or non-covalent BTK inhibitors.
Early data from a Phase 1b cohort also showed an ORR of 83.3% at a 600mg dose, which the company has selected for further development. The drug also demonstrated anti-cancer activity in a Phase 1 trial for Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM), achieving a 75% ORR in evaluable patients.
The company's Chief Medical Officer noted the data indicates durable and deepening responses over time, along with a favorable tolerability profile, supporting continued development. BTK inhibitors are a cornerstone treatment for many B-cell blood cancers, but resistance can develop. Protein degraders like bexobrutineg, which directly induce the degradation of the BTK protein, offer a potential strategy to overcome this resistance.
Roche and Nurix Therapeutics suggest that bexobrutineg may offer advantages over current BTK inhibitors by potentially overcoming resistance mutations that arise during treatment.
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