Roche has returned the rights to UCB’s anti-tau antibody bepranemab, walking away from a $120 million bet on the Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate on the cusp of the release of phase 2a data.
UCB granted Roche and its biotech unit Genentech an exclusive worldwide license to bepranemab, then called UCB0107, in 2020 as part of a deal worth around $2 billion in milestones. The agreement required UCB to run a proof-of-concept study in Alzheimer’s, generating data to inform Roche and Genentech’s decision about whether to advance the candidate or return the rights.
In the end, the companies chose to return the rights. UCB disclosed the news in a statement ahead of its presentation of phase 2a data on bepranemab, slated to come at the 2024 Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease Meeting next week. The Belgian biopharma called the results “encouraging” but is keeping back details for the presentation. Given the timing of the announcement, it seems the results weren’t encouraging enough for Roche and Genentech.
With the benefit of hindsight, a comment by Azad Bonni, Ph.D., global head of neuroscience and rare diseases at Roche pRED, late last month may have been a clue that the UCB pact might not be long for this world. Asked at Roche’s Pharma Day 2024 about the level of enthusiasm for bepranemab, Bonni said, “so what I can say about that is that this is a collaboration with UCB and so there will be ... an update.”
Bonni added that “there are many ways of going about tau,” but people think targeting the mid-domain region “would be the most optimal way.” Bepranemab targets the mid-region of tau, but Roche has still cut the antibody loose.
The action marks the second time this year that Roche has tossed out a tau candidate. The first time was in January, when its Genentech unit ended its 18-year relationship with AC Immune. Genentech handed crenezumab and semorinemab, antibodies that respectively target amyloid beta and tau, in the wake of phase 2 and 3 data drops that dampened expectations for the candidates.
Tau remains on the menu at Roche, though. In between the two deal terminations, Genentech agreed to pay Sangamo Therapeutics $50 million in near-term upfront license fees and milestone for the chance to use its DNA-binding technology against tau.
Roche’s remaining tau program is part of a broader, ongoing pursuit of the target by multiple companies. Eisai is testing an anti-tau antibody, E2814, in combination with Leqembi in phase 2. Other companies are coming at the protein from different angles, with active clinical programs including a Johnson & Johnson candidate that is designed to help the body make specific antibodies against pathological forms of tau.