Aileron Therapeutics today announced that it had reached a deal with Roche, getting $25 M upfront with milestones that could reach $1.1 billion, for access to its stapled peptide platform. This technology enables delivery of peptide based drugs by maintaining structural configurations that are resistant to proteases, filtration from the blood stream, and enable peptides to enter cells -- all while preserving the peptides bioactivity. Stapled peptides can also recognize extracellular and intracellular targets with specificity.
Roche is making a "...significant commitment....betting they're finally going to unlock the power of peptides as a superclass of drugs," siad Aileron CEO Joseph A. Yanchik III. Roche will initially take 5 targets to the clinic. See Fierce Biotech.
Posted by Bruce Lehr August 24th 2010.
Commentary on this transaction from the PharmaTeck Talk blog (Aug 31st).
http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/08/31/roche%e2%80%99s-1-billion-bet-on-stapled-peptides/
Posted by: bigredbruce | 08/31/2010 at 03:43 PM
More analysis of this deal from Burrill Report on Seeking Alpha
http://seekingalpha.com/article/222563-roche-bets-big-on-peptides-for-tackling-tough-diseases
Posted by: bigredbruce | 08/27/2010 at 08:53 AM