USA – Bayer’s subsidiary, Vividion Therapeutics has entered into a five-year collaboration agreement worth up to US$930 million with Tavros Therapeutics to discover and develop four novel oncology targets.
Vividion, which launched in 2017, was acquired by Bayer last year for US$1.5 billion to bolster its small-molecule capabilities and help it expand into new modalities.
“Many targets remain inaccessible to traditional small-molecule drugs, and many others have uncertain relevance to disease,” remarked Jeffrey Hatfield, CEO of Bayer’s Vividion Therapeutics subsidiary.
However, the US$930-million tie-up “brings together two…synergistic approaches to drug discovery that will address both of these challenges.”
Tavros’ precision oncology platform is designed to exploit genetic vulnerabilities within tumors to discover viable targets and biomarkers that it says will ultimately improve patient outcomes, minimize toxicity and more quickly help define patient subsets.
According to Tavros, the technology can “precisely and directly identify the paired genetic interactions that form the basis for breakthrough targets and first-in-class cancer drugs.”
Tavros will receive US$17.5 million upfront as part of the deal, plus up to US$430.5 million in milestones for four initial programs, as well as certain royalties, over an initial five-year term.
Meanwhile, Bayer will also have rights to opt-in to up to five more targets, which could see Tavros pocket another US$482 million in additional payments.
Tavros is a biotech precision oncology platform founded in 2019. The company, based in Durham, North Carolina, uses functional genomics screening to identify unique weaknesses in cancer cells and new drug targets.
Tavros is also developing a pipeline of small-molecule drug candidates using its platform and map of synthetic lethal relationships, though none have been publicly nominated yet.
Tavros’ agreement with Vividion comes on the heels of a collaboration with Zentalis Pharmaceuticals in 2020 to develop next-generation targeted small-molecule drug candidates, as well as a collaboration with OpenBench in 2021 to identify potential antagonists against an unnamed cancer target
Tavros closed its second seed round of funding last month, raising US$7.5 million.
Vividion focuses on discovering previously unknown functional pockets on the surface of disease-relevant proteins.
Vividion can use this information to screen for unique small-molecule compounds that can selectively attack these pockets and have a therapeutic effect.
So far, Vividion’s approach has identified over 800 novel functional pockets and resulted in over 100 hits with small molecule compounds.
The potential of this platform to address previously intractable targets, particularly in cancer and immune diseases, prompted Bayer to make a US$2 billion acquisition offer in 2021.
Vividion was considering an initial public offering at the time. It did, however, abandon its plans in favor of the buyout.
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