UCB will advance its anti-tau antibody for Alzheimer’s disease solo after Roche and Genentech walked away from the asset known as bepranemab.
In 2020, Roche and Genentech spent $120 million upfront and committed up to $2 billion in milestones and royalties for exclusive rights to the candidate, a monoclonal antibody that targets the buildup of tau protein in the brain. On Tuesday, UCB said it regained global rights to bepranemab after the partnership ended.
This is not the first time Roche and Genentech have opted out of the anti-tau space. In January, the companies ended a two-decade-long Alzheimer’s partnership with AC Immune after several lackluster readouts, leaving behind an asset targeting amyloid and another one targeting tau.
Bepranemab is currently in Phase 2a, with topline data to be presented at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease annual meeting in Madrid later this month. The trial is testing the effects of two doses of bepranemab administered every four weeks versus placebo in people with prodromal or mild Alzheimer’s.
Earlier this month, Leerink analysts said positive results for bepranemab could “incrementally de-risk” next-generation anti-tau antibodies. The buildup of tau in the brain creates “tangles” that are thought to trigger cell damage and inflammation in Alzheimer’s.
Pharma companies such as Roche and Eli Lilly took an interest in targeting tau several years ago when drugs that zero in on amyloid beta were struggling in the clinic. But the tau approach has yielded mixed results. Lilly’s tau-targeting OGA inhibitor failed a Phase 2 study in August. Biogen’s antisense oligonucleotide asset designed to reduce tau showed hints of efficacy in an early-stage trial late last year.
As for Roche, the deal termination comes as part of a broader strategy shift that focuses on cardiometabolic, oncology and neurology drugs. The company has notably made investments in next-generation weight loss approaches.
Genentech is still into anti-tau modalities. In August, it spent $50 million in near-term licensing fees and milestones to work with Sangamo on an epigenetic repressor to prevent the production of the protein.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct that Genentech spent $50 million on its deal with Sangamo. A previous version stated it spent $350 million upfront.