Roche Holding struck a deal with China's Rona Therapeutics to license worldwide rights to an experimental therapy for obesity and metabolic diseases for up to $1.16 billion, moving to bolster its portfolio with a new weight-loss approach.
Under the agreement, Shanghai-based Rona will get upfront and near-term payments of up to $100 million and be eligible to receive an extra $1.06 billion subject to reaching development, regulatory and commercial goals, as well as royalties on potential sales, Rona said Tuesday.
Roche has sought to build and expand a portfolio of weight-loss drugs in recent years, joining a growing group of drugmakers vying to challenge Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. It completed in 2024 its $2.7 billion purchase of U.S. obesity drug developer Carmot Therapeutics and entered into an up to $5.3 billion licensing deal with Denmark's Zealand Pharma to jointly develop a different kind of weight-loss medicine last year.
The Swiss company, which has previously said it aims to be one of the top-three players in the obesity field, is exploring yet a new way of tackling weight loss through its deal with the Chinese biotech.
The drug candidate Roche is licensing from Rona is a gene silencer--also known as a RNA interference, or RNAi, therapy--that targets a protein called ALK7 found in fat tissue.
Rona said this mechanism has the potential to selectively reduce visceral and other fat while preserving lean mass. The company said this approach might be used independently or in combination with established incretin-based therapies--like the popular weight-loss medications sold by Eli Lilly and Novo, and which Roche is also developing--that primarily affect appetite and energy intake.
Other companies such as California-based Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals and South Korea's OliX Pharmaceuticals are also working on similar products.
Roche's Head of Corporate Business Development, Boris L. Zaitra, said the deal complements the group's pipeline in cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases and reinforces its commitment to delivering next-generation therapies.
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