Bayer’s Vividion Therapeutics has secured the global rights from its partner Roche to the only covalent Werner helicase (WRN) inhibitor to have made it into the clinic.
Vividion and Roche have collaborated on the candidate, known as VVD-214 or RO7589831, as part of their 2020 partnership. The drug is designed to damage the DNA of cancers by inhibiting WRN, a DNA repair enzyme.
VVD-214 is currently being evaluated in a phase 1 study as a monotherapy and in combination with Keytruda for patients with solid tumors that have high microsatellite instability—where cells have a defect in the ability to correct mistakes that occur when DNA is copied in the cell—such as colorectal, endometrial, ovarian and gastric cancers.
Early data from the study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in April showed early signals of efficacy in these cancers, Vividion said in a June 4 release.
“Bringing VVD-214, the only clinical-stage covalent inhibitor of WRN in development worldwide, into our portfolio marks an incredibly exciting moment for Vividion,” the Bayer subsidiary’s CEO Aleksandra Rizo, M.D., Ph.D., said in the release. “We are eager to progress development of this compound, building on the encouraging clinical data we’ve seen to date, as part of our mission to transform treatment for patients with cancer and other serious diseases.”
“VVD-214 is showing promising potential to improve treatment options for patients suffering from MSI-high cancers, a population with high unmet medical need,” Christian Rommel, Ph.D., Global Head of Research and Development at Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division, said.
“It underscores the ability of Vividion’s chemoproteomics technology to identify and advance new treatment opportunities for challenging and intractable diseases, and will be a valuable addition to the company’s portfolio,” Rommel added.
Fierce Biotech has asked Vividion for the financial terms of the deal, details of which were not shared in its release.
Bayer bought California-based Vividion for $1.5 billion back in 2021. Beyond VVD-214, Vividion’s clinical-stage pipeline also includes an oral KEAP1 activator in a phase 1 study for solid tumors, an oral STAT3 inhibitor in solid and hematologic malignancies, and an oral RAS-PI3Kα inhibitor in advanced solid tumors.
While Vividion and Roche were the first to get a covalent WRN inhibitor into the clinic, Eikon Therapeutics is working on its own candidate, which the biotech also hopes could be aimed at MSI-high and other DNA repair–deficient cancers.