Biogen has teamed up with HitGen. The alliance tasks HitGen with applying its DNA-encoded libraries to targets of interest to Biogen to generate novel leads for the big biotech.
HitGen’s drug discovery operation is centered on libraries of DNA-encoded chemicals. The Chinese biotech generates these libraries by taking scaffolds of chemical structures, modifying them and encoding each resulting compound with a DNA sequence. Then, HitGen screens the billions of compounds against a protein to identify candidates with affinity for the target.
The chemical diversity and druglike properties of compounds in HitGen’s libraries, coupled with the relatively low costs and quick turnarounds associated with the DNA-encoded approach, have enabled the startup to land deals with a series of big name drug developers.
Biogen is the latest company to bite. In return for upfront and milestone payments of undisclosed size, HitGen will turn its platform on neurological targets of interest to Biogen. If HitGen generates a hit, Biogen will exclusively license the resulting novel lead.
Given the very early-stage nature of the work, Biogen is a long way from turning the leads into drugs that help patients. But that is the ultimate, distant goal of the collaboration.
“Through this collaboration, we hope to advance drug candidates that could eventually translate into new treatment options for patients living with serious neurological conditions,” Biogen Senior Vice President Anabella Villalobos said in a statement.
The agreement provides further evidence of HitGen’s arrival on the global stage. Over the past 12 months, HitGen has unveiled a series of deals with Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck, Sanofi and a clutch of other drug developers. Those deals were dotted in around a RMB 250 million ($36 million) series B round and news Pfizer had started collaborating with HitGen-backed NetVation DL Medicine.
HitGen is also advancing its own pipeline. In May, Chinese regulators cleared HitGen to start clinical development of a HDAC inhibitor in multiple myeloma. HitGen thinks the preclinical data suggest the drug, HG146, may be more effective than existing HDAC inhibitors such as Novartis’ Farydak.