Business Engagement Manager - Ecosystem

Roundup: Nanexa, Earendil Labs, and Atavistik Bio enter platform deals with Novo Nordisk, Genentech, and Roche. Three platform-technology deals paired Nanexa, Earendil Labs, and Atavistik Bio with Novo Nordisk, Genentech, and Roche to advance next-generation metabolic and oncology medicines. Platform-technology deals dominated this week's dealmaking, as drug delivery and discovery specialists licensed their proprietary systems to larger partners chasing next-generation metabolic and oncology medicines. Nanexa licenses Pharmashell platform to Novo Nordisk. Nanexa AB entered into a global exclusive license and collaboration agreement with Novo Nordisk for the use of the Pharmashell technology platform for certain peptide-based drugs targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other cardiometabolic indications. As part fo the deal, Nanexa is eligible to receive total payments upwards of $1.33 billion, including $701 million in upfront payment and development and regulatory milestones, with the remaining milestone payments tied to sales.[1] Nanexa is also eligible to receive low single-digit royalties on global net sales of products developed under the agreement.[1] Under terms of the agreement, Novo is expected to receive a global license to use Nanexa's Pharmashell technology platform in up to five development programs.[1] The collaboration includes development of long-acting injectable formulations with different administration-frequency profiles, with monthly and quarterly administration as target profiles. Pharmashell is Nanexa's proprietary atomic layer deposition-based drug delivery platform, designed to enable controlled and sustained release of active pharmaceutical ingredients through an ultra-thin inorganic coating applied to individual drug particles, intended to support differentiated long-acting injectable drugs that reduce dosing frequency and improve the treatment experience for people living with chronic metabolic or cardiovascular disease.[1] "We are very excited about and proud of this license agreement with Novo and look forward to working with them to successfully develop products with less frequent dosing in obesity and type 2 diabetes indications. Following our license and option agreement with Moderna in 2025, this agreement further strengthens the external validation of Pharmashell as a broadly applicable drug delivery platform and we believe this provides a strong foundation for expanding Pharmashell into additional therapeutic areas and to selectively advance additional internal programs towards clinical proof of concept, allowing us to capture greater value from the breadth of the Pharmashell platform," said David Westberg, CEO of Nanexa. Earendil Labs partners with Genentech. Earendil Labs announced a research collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to discover and develop multiple therapeutic bispecific antibody programs in oncology. Earendil Labs will receive a $55 million upfront payment, and the total potential value of the collaboration, including upfront, development, regulatory and sales milestone payments is expected to excess $1.5 billion.[2] Earendil Labs is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on net product sales. Under the collaboration, Earendil Labs will lead antibody discovery and research through the early clinical development stage for antibody programs directed to certain pre-agreed target combinations, while Genentech will assume responsibility for subsequent global clinical development and commercialization of antibody programs arising from the collaboration.[2] "Genentech is a pioneer in defining modern biologics cancer medicine. Earendil Labs is building an AI-driven high-throughput biology platform that effectively integrates AI directly into biologics research and development - from predictive protein modeling and generative protein design to rapid experimental validation. By combining our platform with Genentech's deep expertise in oncology drug development, we aim to accelerate the creation of differentiated bispecific antibodies and translate them into new medicines," said Jian Peng, PhD, CEO of Earendil Labs. Atavistik Bio strikes CVRM discovery collaboration with Roche. Atavistik Bio entered into a strategic research collaboration with Roche to discover and develop novel small molecule therapeutics against multiple targets for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic diseases. As part of the deal, Atavistik Bio is set to receive an upfront payment of $70 million and may be eligible to receive additional research, development, and commercial milestone payments of up to $1.9 billion, along with tiered royalties on future net sales of any approved medicines resulting from the collaboration.[3] The collaboration will leverage Atavistik Bio's proprietary Amps drug discovery platform and expertise in allosteric drug discovery to identify novel functional binding pockets and advance selective small molecule therapeutics against targets for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic disease.[3] By uncovering cryptic, biologically relevant binding pockets, Atavistik Bio's platform enables new approaches to develop differentiated small molecules against therapeutically important targets that have historically been challenging to modulate. Under the terms of the agreement, Atavistik Bio will be responsible for discovery and research activities for the collaboration targets, with Roche responsible for further preclinical and clinical development, regulatory, and commercialization activities.[3] "We are pleased to partner with Roche, whose deep expertise in drug development makes them an ideal partner to extend the reach of our allosteric discovery platform," said Bryan Stuart, chief executive officer of Atavistik Bio. "This collaboration reflects the strength and broad applicability of our platform across therapeutic areas, further validating our approach to allosteric drug discovery. We are excited to extend the application of our platform into CVRM diseases by leveraging Roche's deep expertise in the field, while we remain focused internally on advancing a robust pipeline of potentially best-in-class therapies for patients with rare hematologic diseases."

Roche signs two deals worth about $3.5B in one day. Roche signed two research partnerships on Sept. 24: one with Atavistik Bio to discover drugs for cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases, and another with Earendil Labs to develop cancer antibodies. Together, the agreements have a potential value of more than $3.47 billion (€3.05 billion). Roche is paying $125 million (€110 million) upfront. Atavistik: Roche will pay the Cambridge, Massachusetts, biotech $70 million (€62 million) upfront, with up to $1.9 billion (€1.67 billion) in research, development and commercial milestones, plus royalties. Atavistik will use its AMPS platform to find binding pockets on proteins and design small molecules against several disease targets. Roche will take over further preclinical development, clinical trials and commercialization. * The deal takes Atavistik's discovery platform beyond its own focus on rare blood diseases. Its lead drug, ATV-1601, is in a Phase 1/2 trial for hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, a condition that causes abnormal blood vessels. Atavistik raised $160 million (€141 million) in its Series B financing and also has a research partnership with Pfizer. Earendil: Roche's Genentech unit will pay $55 million (€48 million) upfront to work with the Delaware-based biotech on multiple bispecific antibodies for cancer. The agreement is worth more than $1.5 billion (€1.32 billion) if its development, regulatory and sales milestones are met, with royalties on top. Earendil will lead discovery, research and early clinical development; Genentech will handle later global development and commercialization. The companies have not disclosed the target combinations. * Earendil says its platform combines AI-based protein design with rapid experimental testing. It has already partnered with Sanofi on bispecific antibodies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and said in March that it had raised $787 million (€692 million) across financing rounds. The big picture: These are Roche's fourth and fifth announced biotech agreements in less than a month. Since Aug. 28, Genentech has partnered with DualityBio on antibody-drug conjugates, Roche has licensed Simcere Zaiming's trispecific antibody for B-cell diseases, and it has struck a separate bispecific discovery deal with Dualitas Therapeutics for inflammatory diseases. * The five deals carry more than $7 billion (€6.2 billion) in combined potential value, against $281.5 million (€248 million) in disclosed upfront payments. In four weeks, Roche has added three antibody partnerships, one antibody-drug conjugate collaboration and Atavistik's small-molecule platform to its external pipeline search. | (C) european biotechnology | Joachim Eeckhout 25 September 2026 |