A new collaboration to develop novel degraders for immune-mediated diseases has been announced between Monte Rosa Therapeuticsand Novartis, expanding on their existing partnership.

This marks their second agreement, following a prior license agreement for Monte Rosa’s VAV1 degraders. The new agreement is structured to accelerate the development of degraders for difficult-to-drug targets, leveraging Monte Rosa’s proprietary AI/ML-enabled QuEEN™ product engine for discovery and development, with Novartis handling further development and commercialization. Under the terms of the agreement, Monte Rosa will receive a $120 million upfront payment and is eligible for up to $5.7 billion in total deal value, which includes option maintenance payments, preclinical and option exercise payments, and milestones for development, regulatory, and sales. They are also eligible for tiered royalties on global net sales ranging from high single to low double-digits. Monte Rosa’s publicly disclosed pipeline programs are not included in this agreement. This financial boost will allow Monte Rosa to accelerate its wholly owned preclinical and clinical-stage immunology and inflammation (I&I) pipeline, and provides financial runway beyond multiple anticipated Phase 2 readouts. Both companies expressed excitement about the collaboration, with Monte Rosa's CEO highlighting the new agreement's strengthening of their relationship with Novartis and affirming the potential of their MGDs and QuEEN™ platform. Novartis's President of Biomedical Research stated that the collaboration underscores their commitment to advancing targeted protein degradation to address high unmet needs in immune-mediated diseases.