Roche collaborates with Blueprint Medicines to bring a new treatment to people with RET-altered cancers

• Roche will obtain co-development and co-commercialisation rights for pralsetinib, an investigational, precision therapy in late-stage development for people with RET-altered non-small cell lung cancer, various types of thyroid cancer and other solid tumours.
• Blueprint Medicines and Roche will collaborate on the development of pralsetinib.
• Roche and Blueprint Medicines will co-commercialise pralsetinib in the US while Roche will be responsible for commercial activities outside the US, excluding Greater China*.
• Roche will pay an upfront of $675 million in cash in addition to a $100 million equity investment in Blueprint Medicines who is eligible to receive up to $927 million in potential milestones, plus royalties on net product sales outside the US.

             
Basel, 14 July 2020 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) and Blueprint Medicines Corporation (NASDAQ:BPMC), today announced the signing of a licensing and collaboration agreement providing exclusive rights to Roche for global co-development and commercialisation outside the United States (US), excluding Greater China*. In the US, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, will obtain co-commercialisation rights to pralsetinib, Blueprint Medicine’s investigational, once-daily oral precision therapy for the treatment of people with RET-altered non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) and other types of thyroid cancer, as well as other solid tumours. In addition, pralsetinib has demonstrated tumour-agnostic potential. The companies also plan to expand development of pralsetinib in multiple treatment settings and explore development of a next-generation RET inhibitor under the collaboration.

RET-activating fusions and mutations are key disease drivers in many cancer types, including NSCLC and MTC, and treatment options that selectively target these genetic alterations are limited. With the ongoing need for more targeted therapies that may offer clinical benefit to people with these types of cancers, this collaboration reflects Roche's strategy of providing treatments tailored specifically to a patient’s individual tumour profile and delivering truly personalised healthcare.