Mega $3 Billion+ Deal Shapes Up for Roche to Target AD and Parkinson's

Swiss pharma giant Roche has been cautious about its Phase III Alzheimer’s drug gantenerumab, particularly in light of the controversial approval of Biogen's Aduhelm. But, that caution doesn’t mean the company is wary about continued research into the devastating impact of that disease, as well as other neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.

This morning, the company announced a partnership with Seattle-based Shape Therapeutics valued at more than $3 billion that will attempt to harness that company’s RNA editing platform to take on these diseases, as well as others. Roche will apply RNAfix and Shape’s AAVid technology platform to develop next-generation tissue-specific adeno-associated viruses for new gene therapies aimed at these indications.