Roche, Shape Therapeutics ink RNA-editing pact

Shape Therapeutics Inc., a biotech company developing RNA technologies for gene therapy, has entered into a multi-target strategic collaboration and license agreement with Roche. Via this partnership, Shape will apply its proprietary RNA editing platform RNAfix and potentially leverage its AAVid technology tool for tissue-specific adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) for the development of gene therapy for certain targets in the areas of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and rare diseases.

Roche will be in charge of development and worldwide commercialization of any potential products resulting from this collaboration. Per the deal, Shape is eligible to receive an initial payment as well as development, regulatory and sales milestone payments, that could possibly surpass $3 billion. The biotech company can also receive tiered royalties on future sales of products resulting from the agreement.

“We are excited by the disruptive potential of Shape’s RNA-editing approach based on nature’s own mechanism for specific base editing. This new collaboration is also perfectly aligned with our broader efforts across the Roche Group to unlock the full potential of gene therapy,” says James Sabry, head of Roche pharma partnering. “We look forward to working with Shape to create novel treatment options for neuroscience and rare disease indications.”