Roche Signs Up to $1 Billion Deal With Dualitas to Identify 300,000 Bispecific Antibody Combinations

Roche has signed a deal worth up to $1 billion with Dualitas Therapeutics to identify bispecific antibodies for new treatments for immune and inflammatory diseases.

According to U.S. biotech publication Fierce Biotech on the 17th local time, Roche will pay Dualitas an upfront fee of $36.5 million and screen more than 300,000 new bispecific antibody combinations.

Dualitas launched last year after raising a $65 million Series A investment. The company has built a pipeline focused on treatments for allergic and autoimmune diseases and has a technology called “DualScreen” that enables large-scale screening of cell-surface targets.

Rather than relying on known biological mechanisms, the company uses high-throughput screening technology to identify new target combinations. Dualitas described the project as “one of the largest bispecific antibody discovery programs ever.”

Under the agreement, Dualitas will functionally screen the combinations to identify and develop bispecific antibodies, after which Roche will take over development beginning in the preclinical stage. If the programs advance, research and development (R&D) and commercialization milestone payments could bring the total deal value to $1 billion. Tiered royalties are also included.

Roche has brought bispecific antibodies including Columvi, Hemlibra, Lunsumio and Vabysmo to market. The partnership supports Roche’s efforts to expand the use of bispecific antibodies beyond cancer into indications including ulcerative colitis and lupus.

With the upfront payment, Dualitas has secured the resources to begin clinical development of its own program next year. Its lead pipeline candidate is DTX-102, a bispecific antibody that binds to CD28 for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The company said preclinical studies showed that DTX-102 may have greater efficacy than approved drugs and could improve dosing convenience.

Dualitas’ R&D pipeline is led by former Roche personnel. Greg Lazar, formerly of Roche’s Genentech unit, serves as co-founder and chief scientific officer (CSO), while Karim Dabbagh, who led inflammation pharmacology early in his career at Roche, joined the company as chief executive officer (CEO) in June.