杭州达歌生物医药科技有限公司

iStock, Michael Vi The molecular glue space has attracted several Big Pharma players over the past few years, including Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and Novartis. Eli Lilly on Friday put more than $1.2 billion on the line in a licensing deal with Boston biotech Magnet Biomedicine, adding another pharma powerhouse to the already-crowded, already-competitive molecular glue space. As per the agreement, Lilly will front $40 million, an amount that includes an equity investment into the biotech and which will account for the deal’s upfront and near-term considerations. Magnet will be entitled to certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones, with the total potentially exceeding $1.25 billion in value. In exchange for its investment, Lilly will gain access to Magnet’s proprietary TrueGlue discovery technology. According to Magnet’s website , its platform makes use of “state-of-the-art screening technologies,” alongside an extensive exclusive library, to systematically discover potential small-molecule drug candidates that can bridge a disease target and another protein. In turn, these small molecules, which the biotech calls “TrueGlues,” can enable precise targeting and open up access to targets that have historically been difficult to reach, using the secondary protein connected by the TrueGlue as a path to targeting the disease-causing protein. The partners will target oncology indications, according to Magnet’s press release, “spanning multiple diseases with unmet medical need.” Also under Friday’s agreement, Magnet will be eligible for tiered royalties on global net sales of any product that results from the partnership. Lilly is the latest Big Pharma to enter the molecular glue market. Last month, AbbVie bet up to $1.64 billion on the technology in a partnership with Neomorph targeting immunology and oncology indications. The California-based biotech is a popular partner in the space—it also bagged a potential $1.46 billion contract with Novo Nordisk in February 2024, followed by a deal with Biogen for up to $1.45 billion in October 2024. Also in October 2024, Novartis joined its fellow industry heavy hitters with a $150 million upfront payment to Monte Rosa Therapeutics, gaining access to the Boston biotech’s molecular glue degraders targeting the VAV1 protein, a key player in T- and B-cell signaling. The partnership, which includes up to $2.1 billion in milestones, will focus on immune indications. Pfizer and Takeda are likewise investing heavily in molecular glues, pumping up to $2.55 billion and $1.2 billion into their respective partnerships with Proxygen and Degron Therapeutics. Correction (Feb. 28): This article has been updated from its original version to correct that the licensing deal between Eli Lilly and Magnet Biomedicine is worth $1.2 billion-plus, as opposed to $1.6 billion-plus. Also, the companies have disclosed that they will be targeting oncology. BioSpace regrets the errors.

BridGene will receive $46m in combined upfront and potential preclinical milestone payments. Credit: Klaus Vedfelt via Getty Images. Bridgene and Takeda have inked a deal worth $770m to develop small molecules for immunology and neurology. Takeda will pay $46m upfront to leverage BridGene’s chemoproteomics platform, dubbed IMTAC. The platform screens small molecules against all the proteins in live cells to discover drug candidates for “high value and hard-to-drug targets” that cause diseases, according to BridGene’s website. The company highlighted that about 90% of proteins associated with diseases cannot be targeted with traditional therapies due to the lack of a known addressable binding site. Takeda will hold exclusive rights to develop and commercialise any resulting drugs from the collaboration. In addition to the upfront payment, BridGene could receive up to $770m in additional milestone payments, along with tiered royalties. The companies previously teamed up in March 2021 for a similar deal worth $500m to start up to five drug discovery programmes. Using BridGene’s IMTAC platform, this programme focused on identifying targets believed to underlie neurodegenerative disease. BridGene announced that it had hit two milestones under the agreement in 2023. In the announcement accompanying the latest deal, Takeda’s chief scientific officer Christopher Arendt said: “By integrating BridGene’s IMTAC platform with Takeda’s scientific expertise, we aim to unlock a broader range of targets that have been considered undruggable, aligning with our core strategy in small molecule drug discovery.” Takeda has been on a wave of dealmaking over the last year. In December 2024, the Japanese pharma company spent $200m in exchange for Keros Therapeutics’ investigational activin inhibitor elritercept to treat anaemia. As part of the deal, Keros could secure up to $1.1bn in development, approval, and sales milestones. This follows on from a November 2024 agreement with Alloy Therapeutics to develop chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T therapies using Takeda’s proprietary induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) platforms, which aim to improve treatment options for both solid tumours and blood cancers. Two more billion-dollar deals with Takeda took place in May 2024. One was for AC Immune’s amyloid beta-targeting Alzheimer’s disease (AD) immunotherapy, in a deal worth up to $2.2bn . The second pact saw Takeda spend $1.2bn to develop molecular glue degraders with Degron Therapeutics for multiple targets in the three disease areas.

iStock, hapabapa BridGene strikes another partnership with Takeda as the latter company continues its dealmaking streak, following high-ticket agreements with Keros Therapeutics, AC Immune and Degron Therapeutics in the past nine months. Takeda deepened its relationship with BridGene Biosciences with another licensing deal geared toward developing novel small-molecule drugs against “challenging” immunology and neurology targets. Under the agreement, announced Tuesday, Takeda is forking over $46 million in a combined upfront and potential preclinical milestone payment and is pledging additional clinical and commercial milestones. Taken together, these payments could result in a deal value of up to $770 million. BridGene will also be entitled to tiered royalties on net sales of any product that comes out of the partnership. In return, Takeda will gain access to BridGene’s proprietary IMTAC platform, which takes a chemoproteomic approach to drug design and discovery, allowing the biotech to develop molecules that can hit “traditionally undruggable targets,” according to Tuesday’s news release. Takeda will have exclusive rights over assets that come out of the collaboration and will be responsible for taking those molecules through clinical development, as well as taking charge of regulatory and commercial activities. The larger biopharma company will work collaboratively with BridGene through hit-finding and preclinical development. The partners have yet to reveal specific priority indications. Takeda and BridGene’s relationship stretches back to March 2021, when the companies first joined hands to start up to five drug discovery programs , likewise leveraging the biotech’s IMTAC platform. Just like the new deal, the companies at the time didn’t specify which therapeutic areas they were targeting, only revealing that they would be going after targets that were deemed “undruggable.” The partnership has moved forward consistently over the years, with BridGene in 2023 announcing that it had hit two milestones under the contract. Tuesday’s BridGene contract continues a dealmaking streak for Takeda, which in December 2024 paid $200 million upfront for Keros Therapeutics’ blood cancer-related anemia drug elritercept. The agreement, which would give the Japanese multinational a competitor to Bristol Myers Squibb’s Reblozyl, also includes milestones that have the potential to go above $1.1 billion. Months earlier, in May 2024, Takeda signed two deals: one with AC Immune and its Alzheimer’s disease hopeful for up to $2.2 billion and a separate potential $1.2 billion contract with Chinese biotech Degron Therapeutics for molecular glue degraders.