Vertex Pharmaceuticals is offering Enlaza Therapeutics more than $2 billion in biobucks through a multitarget drug discovery deal aiming to create new T-cell engagers and small-format drug conjugates.
Initially, Vertex is paying the California biotech $45 million, which includes an upfront payment and equity investment, according to a Sept. 2 release. In exchange, Vertex will work with Enlaza’s tech platform, dubbed War-Lock, which is designed to use synthetic biology in efforts to build potentially first-in-class covalent biologics.
The freshly linked pair is chasing new drugs to treat undisclosed autoimmune diseases and also to improve conditioning regimens for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. More gentle conditioning would benefit Vertex, which sells Casgevy, a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy approved in both sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia.
Enlaza is expected to head up all research activities through development candidate nomination, according to the terms of the four-year pact. Vertex will then take the reins for all future R&D, manufacturing and commercialization of successful product candidates, according to the release.
Boston-based Vertex will bankroll all R&D efforts related to the pact. The biopharma is also offering Enlaza more than $2 billion in future milestone payments, plus royalties.
For Enlaza, the partnership represents a move into the autoimmune space. The company said it had several preclinical cancer candidates in 2024, when the biotech raised $100 million in series A money.
The biotech touts itself as the “first covalent biologics platform company,” with big-name backers such as J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Private Capital life sciences group, Frazier Life Sciences, Amgen, Regeneron and Alexandria Venture Investments joining in on last year’s fundraise.
Enlaza’s War-Lock platform is designed to create “highly specific warheads” that covalently bind to drug targets, according to the biotech.
For Vertex, the deal announcement shortly follows the termination of company efforts to follow up on its non-opioid pain reliever, Journavx (suzetrigine). The biopharma axed its investigational sodium channel inhibitor after the asset failed to outpace placebo at improving pain scores in a phase 2 trial.
The company also laid off 125 staffers this summer, a move tied to the cancelled development of Vertex’s VX-264, a “cells plus device” therapy prospect for type 1 diabetes. The approach involved creating insulin-producing cells and surgically implanting them into patients.
The biopharma abandoned VX-264 after the cell-device combo failed to improve a diabetes biomarker in a phase 1/2 trial. The discontinuation triggered an impairment charge of $379 million, according to a May earnings report.
The company is still continuing development for another islet cell therapy, which successfully reduced dangerously low blood sugar levels in a phase 1/2 test.