$1 billion to develop innovative protein degradation therapies

yesterday, AbbVie and Frontier Pharmaceuticals jointly announced a global strategic partnership that will jointly identify, develop and commercialize innovative small-molecule drug pipelines for "non-essential" protein targets using Frontier's unique chemical proteomics technology platform.In the field of drug development, "non-drugable" means that the protein surface does not have a place for small molecule compounds to bind, so small molecule drugs cannot be targeted. Currently, up to 90% of the 20,000 or so proteins in the human body fall into this category.These "non-drug-resistant" proteins may appear in temporary "pockets" when encountering other binding proteins in cells, but they exist for a short period of time and disappear after the protein has functioned. Frontier Medicines' chemical proteomics platform uses covalent probes to detect short-lived binding points on proteins. In theory, the technology platform is designed with co-price compounds capable of targeting 50% of the "non-drugable" protein group. The company is also developing targeted protein degradation technology based on E3 ubibin connective enzymes, which, in combination with these co-priced compounds, can degrade "non-drugable" targets into the proteases of cells. The company was named Biotech Mammoth of the Year last year.Under the agreement, AbbVie will pay Frontier $55 million in upfront payments, as well as part of frontier's preclinical development costs. The two sides will work together to advance scientific discovery and preclinical development projects for E3 connective enzymes, immunology and oncology targets. After successfully reaching the intended preclinical development phase, AbbVie will be responsible for the subsequent global development and commercialization of the project. Frontier is eligible for milestone payments that could exceed $1 billion. (Pharmaceutical Mingkang): 1 AbbVie and Frontier Pharmaceuticals Company Global Partnership to Discover And Develop Novel Therapies and E3 Degradersst Again-To-Drug Targets. Retrieved December 2, 2020, from