Dive Brief:
- Roche has opted out of a co-development deal with Polyphor for an investigational antibiotic designed to treat patients with severe, refractory Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.
- Polyphor will continue to develop RG7929/POL7080 alone.
- The deal was valued at $485.3 million with an additional $451 million in milestone payments.
Dive Insight:
A Roche spokesperson stated the company was opting out of the deal because "a streamlined development path as originally planned is no longer an option for Roche," according to reporting by Reuters.
While that could mean several things, the two companies most likely had a disagreement about the handling of R&D or the future development path for RG7929/POL7080. The drug is currently in phase 2 development.
There continues to be an acute unmet medical need for aggressive treatment of so-called 'superbug' infections, such as multi-drug-resistant typhoid, tuberculosis, and gonorrhea. Despite pulling out of this project, Roche has reiterated its commitment to developing products to combat antimicrobial-resistant pathogens.