Novartis, Monte Rosa Therapeutics join hands for Degraders to treat Immune-mediated diseases
Boston: Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel molecular glue degrader (MGD)-based medicines, has announced an agreement to collaborate with Novartis to develop novel degraders for immune-mediated diseases.
The agreement is the Company’s second with Novartis, in addition to the global exclusive license agreement for Monte Rosa’s VAV1 degraders including MRT-6160, announced in October 2024.
The agreement announced now was uniquely structured by the companies to collaborate on accelerating development of degraders for important immune-mediated diseases driven by highly credentialed and difficult-to-drug targets.
Under the agreement, Monte Rosa’s scientists will apply their proprietary AI/ML-enabled QuEEN product engine for the discovery and development of degraders to be further developed and commercialized by Novartis.
“We are extremely excited to extend our relationship with Novartis beyond our previously announced VAV1 agreement given the strong progress made to advance MRT-6160 toward initiation of multiple Phase 2 studies in immune-mediated diseases,” said Markus Warmuth, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Monte Rosa Therapeutics.
“We believe this new agreement further strengthens our relationship with Novartis, a recognized global leader in immune-mediated diseases, and reflects the expansive opportunity in the space for our highly selective and potent MGDs. Our AI/ML-enabled QuEEN product engine continues to generate new insights and opportunities, delivering an expanding pipeline of programs directed against a breadth of historically undruggable immunology targets. This new collaboration allows us to expedite the development of certain of those programs with Novartis, leveraging their recognized development and commercialization capabilities. The agreement further strengthens our financial position, which allows us to progress our wholly owned programs, including multiple undisclosed targets in Th1, Th2, and Th17-driven autoimmune conditions, and provides runway beyond multiple anticipated Phase 2 readouts for MRT-8102, MRT-6160, and MRT-2359.”
“We are pleased to expand our collaboration with Monte Rosa Therapeutics, building on the strong foundation and progress established through the VAV1 program,” said Fiona Marshall, Ph.D., President of Biomedical Research at Novartis. “This new agreement underscores our commitment to advancing targeted protein degradation as a promising approach to address immune-mediated diseases with high unmet need. We believe Monte Rosa’s QuEEN platform has the potential to uncover new insights in this field. We look forward to working together to translate these insights into transformative therapies for patients.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Monte Rosa will receive an upfront payment of $120 million. Monte Rosa will also receive payments to maintain the options. In total deal value, Monte Rosa is eligible to receive up to $5.7 billion, including upfront, option maintenance, preclinical milestone, option exercise, and development, regulatory, and sales milestone payments across programs, as well as tiered royalties on global net sales in the high single to low double-digit range.
Monte Rosa’s publicly disclosed pipeline programs are outside the scope of this agreement.
Monte Rosa plans to provide further information regarding its updated cash position and runway in its third quarter 2025 earnings update.
Lazard served as the exclusive financial advisor to Monte Rosa for this agreement.
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