Orionis Biosciences Announces Strategic Partnership with Genentech to Discover and Develop Molecular Glue Class Medicines for Cancer
- Orionis to receive $105 million upfront, as well as future milestone-related payments
- Orionis will leverage its Allo-Glue™ platform for the discovery of small-molecule monovalent glues
May 21, 2025, BOSTON, MA and GHENT, Belgium – Orionis Biosciences, a privately held, clinical-stage life sciences company focused on the rational discovery and development of drug modalities with induced proximity mode of action, today announced a second multi-year collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to discover small-molecule monovalent glue medicines for novel and challenging targets in oncology. Orionis announced its first collaboration with Genentech, to discover novel small-molecule medicines for challenging targets in major disease areas, including oncology and neurodegeneration, in September 2023.
Orionis’s small-molecule Allo-Glue™ platform integrates multiple proprietary technologies to advance the discovery and design of molecular glues for highly challenging disease targets. It combines advanced chemical biology tools, engineered cellular assay systems, custom-built high-throughput robotic automation and specialized artificial intelligence infrastructure, and enables the generation and analysis of hundreds of millions of in-cell protein interaction events. The AI-driven chemistry stack integrates predictive modeling, generative design, and a compound interrogation engine operating across a vast chemical space. Collectively, these capabilities accelerate the systematic discovery and simultaneous optimization for potency, selectivity, and synthetic accessibility of monovalent molecular glue modalities.
Under the terms of the agreement, Orionis will be responsible for the discovery and optimization of molecular glues, while Genentech will be responsible for subsequent later-stage preclinical and clinical development, regulatory filing, and commercialization of such small molecules. Orionis will receive an upfront payment of $105 million and is eligible for potential research, development, commercial and net sales milestone payments, whose total could exceed $2 billion as well as potential tiered royalties upon sale of collaboration products.
“We are thrilled about this second collaboration with Genentech, which expands our collaborative efforts in applying induced proximity concepts to include molecular glue types beyond targeted protein degraders”, said Niko Kley, Co-Founder and CEO of Orionis Biosciences. “The expansion of our existing strategic alliance underlines a strong alignment in vision for molecular glues, and the excellent work by both teams during the past year.”
“By integrating advanced cellular sensing technologies, large-scale robotic automation and specialized artificial intelligence, at Orionis we have built a unique capability for discovery of new drug modalities to rationally reprogram protein networks”, said Riccardo Sabatini, Orionis Chief Data Scientist. “It’s an exciting time in small-molecule drug development.”
“Molecular glues, including protein degraders and non-degraders, are an exciting therapeutic modality, providing access to disease-related proteins that have proven challenging and elusive to more traditional treatment modalities,” said Boris L. Zaïtra, Head of Roche Corporate Business Development. “This new collaboration with Orionis has the potential to significantly enhance our innovation to bring transformative cancer medicines to patients.”
About Orionis Biosciences
Orionis Biosciences is a clinical-stage life sciences company pioneering the systematic discovery and rational design of therapeutic modalities that invoke molecular proximity-based mechanisms of action to impact challenging and traditionally elusive disease targets. The company’s Allo-Glue™ platform enables unprecedented target-centric and target-agnostic discovery and design of small molecule glues for any induced proximity applications. Its A-Kine™ biologics platform comprises an array of engineered cytokines that exhibit exquisite cell-target selectivity, and novel types of multifunctional immune cell engagers. The company is advancing a deep and diversified pipeline of oncology programs and cancer immunotherapies. It leverages its disruptive technologies across multiple disease targets and therapeutic indications in collaboration with industry partners.
To learn more, please visit www.orionisbio.com.
Matt Crenson
