Repertoire Immune Medicines has formed its second pharmaceutical partnership since changing course a few years ago, announcing Wednesday a new deal with Roche’s Genentech division to develop treatments for an unspecified autoimmune disease.
Genentech will pay Repertoire, a startup launched by biotechnology company creator Flagship Pioneering, $35 million upfront to start the collaboration. Repertoire will then lead early discovery work, with Genentech handling development and eventually commercialization. The startup could receive up to $730 million in future payouts, as well as sales royalties, if the alliance yields any marketed medicines.
Repertoire is built around a technology dubbed Decode that’s designed to identify the components of the “immune synapse,” a type of junction between white blood cells that plays a key role in immune responses. Repertoire uses that information to uncover drugs for cancer and autoimmune conditions and, so far, has publicly disclosed nine bispecific antibodies or vaccines in its pipeline. All are in preclinical testing.
Repertoire made much of that progress after a strategic reset, however. The company originally launched with a plan to make personalized cell therapies, but pivoted, laid off staff and switched its leadership after early study data disappointed.
That directional change yielded a partnership last year with Bristol Myers Squibb to make “tolerizing” vaccines for autoimmune disorders. And around that time, Repertoire and Roche began engaging in deal talks too, according to CEO Torben Straight Nissen.
The two collaborations have helped Repertoire navigate a tumultuous funding climate for drug startups. The company made partnerships a “core” piece of its strategy, in part because alliances could “create a path forward that was independent of, and less reliant on, raising capital through equity.”
“It harkens back to how biotech used to be in the old days,” he said, when startups could use pharma deals to “move up the value chain.”
Repertoire will help Roche develop therapies that treat an immune condition by targeting T cells. The companies aren’t divulging more specifics, including the disease at the center of the deal. However, Roche has been particularly active in immunology in recent years, cutting deals to acquire gut disease drug developer Telavant as well as autoimmune and cancer cell therapy maker Poseida Therapeutics.
Roche has also been studying multiple bispecific T cell engagers, among them its lymphoma drug Lunsumio, in lupus.
“We look forward to translating the new discoveries Decode and the team at Repertoire will reveal to develop novel medicines for patients suffering from autoimmune diseases,” Boris Zaïtra, Roche’s head of corporate business development, said in a statement.
