Pfizer hands another asset to Roivant

The nascent TL1A-targeting space has emerged as one to watch this year, with both Pfizer and Prometheus talking up the potential of their respective antibody projects in inflammatory bowel diseases. This David and Goliath arrangement shifted yesterday with news that Pfizer was spinning out its lead asset.

Roivant has formed a new “Vant” subsidiary to take forward development of PF-06480605, now dubbed RVT-3101, and the obvious conclusion to draw here is that Pfizer has cooled on this mechanistic approach. The structure of the deal suggests that this is not necessarily the case, however, particularly as these two companies have been here before.