Roche’s Genentech is ending a partnership with Nykode Therapeutics that centered around a clinical-stage cancer vaccine program.
Back in 2020, the Roche subsidiary inked a worldwide licensing deal (PDF) with the Norwegian biotech—known as Vaccibody at the time—to investigate the latter’s individualized neoantigen vaccine VB10.NEO in advanced tumors. Genentech paid $200 million upfront and gave Nykode the chance to make up to $515 million biobucks.
Now, the deal has been terminated, effective Jan. 6, 2025, according to a Nov. 7 release (PDF). Nykode is not required to pay back any of the money from Genentech, according to the release.
“It's our clear impression that this decision by Genentech-Roche is a result of an assessment of their overall portfolio of activities… and not related to anything we have observed in the program,” CEO Michael Engsig said on a Nov. 8 webcast. “We will now work hard at Nykode to determine the best path forward for the program, which could include potential new partnerships and will report back to the market as we come to decisions together with the board.”
VB10.NEO has been tested in two clinical trials, including a phase 1b combination study with Roche’s PD-L1-blocking immune checkpoint inhibitor Tecentriq. That trial, which enrolled patients with locally advanced and metastatic tumors, was designed and conducted in collaboration with Genentech, and is currently in its final stage, CEO Engsig said.
“This is obviously a surprise for us, not least in the light of the good ongoing discussions we had with the Genentech team,” Engsig said, adding that the company remains confident in the potential of the personalized cancer vaccine asset.
While the trial data is still being “cleaned up” and hasn’t been made public yet, Engsig said there’s nothing indicating that the partnership termination is related to the data.
The company’s stock has sunk today on the Oslo Stock Exchange, falling from a previous close of $4.29 to $2.27.
Besides Nykode, Genentech also has a cancer vaccine collaboration with BioNTech on the German company’s individualized mRNA cancer vaccine candidate autogene cevumeran. After encouraging phase 1 data, Genentech a year ago moved the mRNA shot as part of a combination with Tecentriq and chemo into phase 2 testing in resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
The Nykode termination also comes as Genentech has recently decided to shutter its cancer immunology research department and folded that function with molecular oncology research.