Incyte (NASDAQ:INCY) has entered a strategic collaboration with Nimble Therapeutics Inc. for the discovery of first in class peptide therapies in different disease areas.
Nimble to provide the technology for the discovery of peptide therapies
Nimble’s CEO, Jigar Patel, said that strategic collaboration is a huge move for the companies to discover proprietary peptide-based Therapeutics. Patel added that they are delighted to partner with Incyte, a world-class organization in discovering, developing, and commercializing novel drugs. This will help optimize patient impact in various disease indications.
The partnership will leverage the proprietary screening, synthesis, and optimization platform of Nimble in addition to an integrated assays suite and high chemical diversity. This will help in the quick discovery and optimization of the potential compound for extracellular and intracellular targets.
Incyte to pay Nimble Therapeutics for the use of peptide discovery tech platform
As per the agreement‘s terms, Incyte will pay Nimble Therapeutics an undisclosed upfront fee and reimbursement of some research program costs. Also, Nimble may be eligible for royalties from sales as well as downstream milestone payments. Most importantly, Incyte will have exclusive rights for developing and commercializing the peptides that will be discovered under this collaboration. Also, Incyte has the option of expanding the collaboration further to include other targets.
Nimble Therapeutics will bring powerful parallel chemical synthesis in the discovery of the peptides. Its tech platform allows quick screening, synthesis, and engineering of several scaffolded natural as well as modified macrocyclic peptidomimetics. The company has equally developed a range of biological assays that help in empirical screening and optimize molecules with beneficial drug-like properties.
Incyte stock has been on the rise in recent weeks after its drug, and Eli Lilly, baricitinib showed promising results combined with remidsvir in treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Incyte co-developed the Jakafi blood cancer drug version and licensed it to Eli Lilly, and the drug has been found to reduce recovery time and improve outcomes for COVID-19 patients according to data from the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment study sponsored by the NIH.
