Vertex struck gold with the licensing of CRISPR Therapeutics’ sickle cell gene editing therapy in 2017. With that med now approved as Casgevy, Vertex is looking to extend its claim in gene editing therapy through a small licensing deal with South Korea's Orum.
The pharma will license Orum’s degrader-antibody conjugate technology for $15 million upfront plus $310 million per target in milestones plus royalties on future sales. The deal includes three targets. Vertex will be responsible for all research, development and commercialization efforts as part of the deal.
Vertex will conduct research using the South Korean biotech’s protein degraders to identify new conditioning agents. Conditioning agents are used in treatments to prepare patients for a more intense and disruptive therapy, like gene therapy, to improve the chance of success and make it less likely the patient experiences adverse side effects.
Orum’s approach, which the firm calls Dual-Precision Targeted Protein Degradation, involves linking tumor-targeting antibodies with proteins called molecular glue degraders, which latch onto target proteins and recruit enzymes to destroy them. Eliminating the right proteins in the tumor cells leads to cell death.
The biotech's lead candidate using this technique is ORM-5029, which is currently in clinical development for the treatment of HER2-expressing solid tumors.
Orum had another deal with a much larger, though still modest, upfront payment late last year, when Bristol Myers Squibb picked up the company’s phase 1 blood cancer treatment for $100 million.