Protein degradation agents become a big hit! AbbVie announced more than $1 billion in partnership, this time targeting cancer and immune diseases

On December 2nd AbbVie, the pharmaceutical giant, announced a global strategic partnership with Precision Medicines, a precision medicine company, to develop and commercialize innovative small molecule therapies that target hard-to-drug proteins.
the two companies will use Frontier's proprietary chemical proteomics platform to identify small molecules that directly target new E3 connective enzymes and certain tumor and immunology targets.
under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will make a $55 million cash advance to Frontier.
addition, AbbVie will reimburse Frontier for its research and development costs based on the preclinical development phase.
Frontier successfully completes the preclinical development phase, AbbVie will be fully responsible for the global development, commercialization activities and costs of the project.
based on development and commercialization, Frontier is eligible for miles that could exceed $1 billion, as well as additional sales royalties.
: Frontiers Frontiers Medicines, founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Francisco, completed a $67 million round of A financing in 2019.
company's proprietary platform uses chemical proteomics to identify and target new binding pockets of traditionally non-drug-resistant proteins.
in order for a drug to work on the target protein, it first needs to bind to the protein.
, however, about 90 percent of human proteins so far cannot be targeted by small molecule drugs because there are no known binding points on the surface of these proteins.
Frontier believe that as proteins move, they bend and produce temporary pockets, which the drug may be able to bind to.
using chemical proteomics techniques, Frontier has found that most human proteins have such temporary pockets and found ways to selectively target them with new drugs.
According to the company's official website, Frontier's proprietary chemical proteomics platform consists of three key components: 1) a growing database of temporary pockets covering most human proteins, including those previously considered non-drugable;
small molecule drug that regulates E3 connective enzymes is called a protein degradation agent because E3 connective enzymes mediate the degradation of target proteins.
specifically, E3 connective enzymes can mark a small protein called ubibin as defective or damaged by attaching it to the target protein.
, the protein shredder (i.e., protease) in the cell degrades the labeled target protein.
2004, three scientists from Israel and the United States won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering "the protein degradation process mediated by ubibin."
- Carlos Gutiérrez-Ramos, Vice President of Research and Development at AbbVie, said targeted protein degradation agents and chemical proteomics are one of AbbVie's strategic focus areas.
's latest partnership with Frontier will be an important synergy to the company's efforts in these areas.
in addition to its partnership with Frontier, AbbVie in 2018 entered into a partnership with Mission Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company focused on developing targeted de-ubiquitinase drugs, to develop drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD).
this is the pharmaceutical giant's early layout in the field of protein degradation (both AD and PD are associated with the accumulation of misfolded toxic proteins that are thought to cause damage and death of nerve cells in the brain).
de-ubisinases play an important role in regulating the degradation of these proteins.
and Mission hope to degrade these toxic proteins by regulating specific de-ubigenases in the brain and preventing them from accumulating.
In addition to AbbVie, almost all pharmaceutical giants (e.g. Sanofi, Roche, Bayer, Gilead, Lilly, Pfizer, Biogen, Mercedon, GSK, Vertex, Novartis, Amgen, etc.) are now in the field of protein degradation, and more and more protein degradation mechanisms are involved.
that this fierce competition will accelerate the development of protein degradation agents and obtain more valuable clinical data on the prospects of pre-judgmental clinical applications at an early time.
references: 1 s Frontier Medicines and AbbVie Founders Global Partnership to Discover and Develop Novel Therapies and E3 Degraders Against Difficult-to-Drug Targets (Source: Frontier Medicines) 2 sbbVie eyes cancer, immunology in latest protein life pact, Handing Frontiers $55M upfront (Source: Endpoints) 3 s bet on Alzheimer's, Parkinson's (Source: Endpoints) 4 s Mission Therapeutics and AbbVie Sign DUBs Collaboration in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease Source: BUSINESS WIRE Copyright Notice: All noted on this website : The text, images and audio and video materials of Mets Medicine or Source: MedSci Originals are owned by Metz Medicine and may not be reproduced by any media, website or individual without authorization, and shall be reproduced with the words "Source: Mets Medicine".
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