Genentech: Licensing and partnership activity

With the Fierce Business Development and Licensing Summit for Life Sciences scheduled for mid-March, ResoluteAI examined the licensing and partnership activity of some of the pharmaceutical and life sciences companies planning to attend. Our third post covers Genentech.

To view other life science companies in this series, see Eli Lilly and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Genentech and Lineage Cell Therapeutics

In December 2021, Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche, signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Lineage Cell Therapeutics, a California-based biotech innovating new cell therapies. Excluding royalties, Lineage will eventually earn $670 Million from Genentech. Granting Lineage $50 million upfront, Genentech will oversee the clinical advancement and sales of OpRegen, a stem-cell derived injection that transplants retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells into the eyes of patients suffering from blindness-inducing diseases.

The Tech Transfer database in ResoluteAI's Foundation reveals opportunities to partner with four other organizations also developing RPE tissue from stem cells.

Tech transfer opportunities involving the development of RPE tissue from stem cells

At present, a Phase I/II clinical trial for OpRegen is underway, treating adults with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). A quick search in Foundation's clinical trial dataset efficiently lays out all trial information, including objective, treatment description, endpoints, eligibility, and cohort size.

As of November 2021, 4 patients (17% of participants) experienced significant vision improvements, with no adverse events or side effects recorded as of yet.  Aside from AMD, Genentech’s pipeline is also focusing on treatments for several other eye diseases, such as diabetic macular edema and retinal vein occlusion.

Genentech and Biogen

In January of this year, Genentech’s partnership with Biogen was reactivated as the Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical agreed to pay $30 million to Genentech in order to take part in the buildout and commercialization of the late-stage antibody mosunetuzumab. Genentech and Biogen have a collaborative history spanning decades, culminating in the release of top-selling drugs like Rituxan and Ocrevus. By exercising this option, Biogen is betting on the success of mosunetuzumab. The one-time payment will also allow Genentech to recoup some of the previous drug development costs.  

Indicated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), the late-stage drug targets CD20, a peptide found on certain types of white blood cells (B cells). Most lymphomas are caused by an overabundance of abnormal B cells, resulting in an overexpression of CD20 for these patients. By binding to CD20, the antibody can trigger the death of these cancerous B cells. Research regarding mosunetuzumab has appeared in many prominent journals within the past few years:

Articles regarding mosunetuzumab by journal title and published date

You can learn more about Genentech’s licensing process from BD&L speaker Jennifer Halbleib.

This information was discovered using Foundation, the scientific discovery engine. For more information on Foundation and ResoluteAI’s analytical tools, please contact us at info@resolute.ai or use the link below.