Aileron, Roche to expand Stapled Peptide drug collaboration

Aileron Therapeutics announced today that Roche will initiate a new program to expand its collaboration with Aileron to discover, develop and commercialize Stapled Peptide drugs. The potential $1.1 billion drug development collaboration, launched in August 2010, encompassed up to five programs of strategic importance to Roche; initially Aileron launched the collaboration around two key programs in oncology. Pursuant to the expanding relationship, Aileron and Roche will now commence work on a third program focused on inflammatory diseases.

Aileron also announced that it achieved a key milestone under the collaboration agreement triggering a substantial milestone payment related to in vivo proof-of-concept against one of the programs of importance to Roche. Financial details of the agreement and milestone payment are not being disclosed.

"In our first program, this collaboration has already demonstrated in vivo proof-of-concept in multiple models, and shown novel mechanistic capabilities," said Jean-Jacques Garaud, global head of Roche Pharma Research and Early Development. "We now want to expand our work with Aileron and broaden the impact of Stapled Peptides in our portfolio to create drugs for disease targets that are intractable using currently available modalities."

"We have now demonstrated in conjunction with a world-class drug development partner that - as we expected - our Stapled Peptide drugs are capable of addressing targets, in manner and effect, that have eluded small molecules and antibodies," stated Joseph A. Yanchik, III, president and CEO of Aileron. "Given the potential impact of this technology and the associated scrutiny, it was essential for us to set a high bar and show early success with a partnered drug discovery program. I also want to acknowledge the tremendous work done by the combined Aileron-Roche team over the last year to deliver this rapid progress and look forward to our efforts to bring these drugs to patients."

Yanchik added, "Independent of our agreement with Roche, Aileron is pursuing several programs designed to provide clear clinical proof-of-concept for Stapled Peptides drugs and a rapid path to market in areas with significant unmet needs, including infectious diseases and muscular degenerative diseases."