Denali Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:DNLI) has announced its Q3 2020 financial results and offered business highlights for the quarter ended September 30, 2020.
Denali realized $9.4 million in collaboration revenue in Q3 2020
The company reported collaboration revenue of $9.4 million in Q3 2020 compared to $13.6 million on Q3 2019. The $4.2 million drop was mainly due to a decrease in revenue realized under the Sanofi Collaboration Agreement for the peripheral program and the winding down of retained activities revenue following the transfer of activities to Sanofi. However, the company saw an $8.2 million increase in revenue under the Takeda Collaboration Agreement.
In August the company commenced its collaboration with Biogen for the co-development and co-commercialization of its small molecule leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) inhibitors for Parkinson’s disease. Following the collaboration, Biogen also received rights to join two programs and also first negotiation right for another two programs. The rights are for some neurodegenerative diseases leveraging the TV tech platform of Denali to cross the BBB.
Biogen made a $450 million equity investment in Denali in September 2020, and in October the companies signed a definitive agreement under which Denali received total upfront payments of %560 million. Denali could be eligible for potential milestones payments of $1.125 billion and also sharing profits and royalties for the LRRK2 program.
Denali investing in more programs
Ryan Watts, the company’s CEO, said that during the quarter, the company continued to approach the advancement of an extensive therapeutic portfolio through parallel investments in different programs and strategic collaborations. Watts said that they are delighted with the Biogen collaboration and the work on late-stage DNL151 clinical development plans in Parkinson’s disease. He also added that the company had made significant progress in several other programs enabled by the TV tech platform which include the lead Enzyme Transport Vehicle: iduronate 2-sulfatase program that is evaluating DNL310 in Phase 1/2 study in Hunter syndrome patients.
The company presented preclinical data form other select TV-enabled programs during the recent R&D Day indicating potential application in Alzheimer’s disease, other lysosomal disorders and HER2-positive CNS metastases.
