Roche’s Genentech has inked a deal with Repertoire Immune Medicines aimed at discovering and developing T-cell-targeted medicines in the autoimmune disease space.
Flagship Pioneering-backed Repertoire will leverage its immune-modeling platform in efforts to discover new targets in an undisclosed autoimmune condition, after which Genentech will take over preclinical and clinical development plus any potential commercialization activities, according to an April 23 release.
Genentech is paying Repertoire $35 million while offering up to $730 million in additional development, regulatory and commercial milestones as well as tiered royalties, according to the release.
Repertoire’s platform, dubbed Decode, maps out patients’ immune synapses, the interface where antigen-presenting cells and immune cells like T cells and B cells interact.
“Given Genentech’s commitment and experience as the global market leader in developing treatments for autoimmune diseases, we are delighted to partner with them to bring medicines to patients that reset the immune system,” Torben Straight Nissen, Ph.D., chair and CEO of Repertoire and executive partner at Flagship Pioneering, said in the release.
Repertoire’s current pipeline is entirely preclinical, consisting of a suite of T-cell receptor bispecifics for various cancers and next-generation vaccines for cancer and autoimmune disease.
Initially launched in 2020, the biotech rounded up a $189 million series B financing in 2021. But, in 2022, Repertoire hit the reset button by swapping CEOs, halving its workforce and axing two assets. The top-down shake-up came after the company’s lead assets at the time—autologous cell therapies being tested in HPV-positive tumors—showed meager effects in phase 1 trials, leading Repertoire to halt the studies.
It was then that Nissen, a former Pfizer strategy executive who joined Flagship in 2016 as a senior partner and president of Rubius Therapeutics, took the helm of Repertoire.
In April 2024, the revamped biotech snagged its first Big Pharma partnership. Bristol Myers Squibb bought into Repertoire’s autoimmune tolerizing vaccines, pledging up to $1.8 billion in biobucks to develop shots for three autoimmune diseases. The biotech is leading activities up to development candidate nomination, after which BMS will take over clinical development.