Roche licenses Rona's ALK7-targeting RNAi obesity candidate in a deal worth up to $1.16B
- Roche gets an exclusive license to Rona Therapeutics' investigational ALK7-targeting RNAi candidate for obesity.
- Terms: up to $100M in upfront and near-term milestones, plus up to $1.06B in longer-term milestones and tiered royalties.
- The program's codename and development stage were not disclosed.
💡 Points
ALK7 is the second hot RNAi obesity target after GSK's earlier SiranBio deal, and Roche says it wants to be a top-three obesity player, so this is portfolio-building on the cheap: small upfront, back-loaded milestones. It's also Roche's fifth deal with a Chinese drugmaker since late August, a sign that the best-priced early assets are still found there.
Roche inks $1.2B deal with China's Rona to enter emerging ALK7 obesity race ↗