Roche Acquires Bispecific Antibody Developer Dutalys
Roche will use Dutalys’ DutaMab technology for the engineering of bispecific therapeutic antibodies.
Roche is getting into the bispecific antibodies market through an acquisition of Dutalys, an Austrian biotech company. Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will pay Dutalys $133.75 million upfront and additional milestone payments of up to $355 million for the DutaMab technology.
DutaMab antibodies are touted by Dutalys as “The only bispecific mAbs that retain all the advantages of state-of-the-art monospecific mAbs,” and are fully compatible with all manufacturing platforms. Their structure allows for high biophysical and in-vivo stability, and they are capable of binding to any two antigens or epitopes with high affinity and specificity, according to the company.
“The platform developed by Dutalys is a breakthrough technology, and we are excited about integrating it within Roche,” said John C. Reed, head of pharma research and early development at Roche, in a press release. “It strengthens our R&D capabilities in delivering bispecific antibodies, which have the potential to create transformational new medicines.”
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