The past seven days brought at least two deals that could be worth over $1 billion, with Roche gaining access to a RNA editing technology from Ascidian, and Day One adding an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) from MabCare.
Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) paid $42 million up front to use Ascidian Therapeutics Inc.’s RNA exon editing platform to create therapies against undisclosed neurological disease targets. Ascidian’s technology enables correction of disease-causing mutations via pre-mRNA trans-splicing, which promises durable results while avoiding the risks of permanently altering the DNA via conventional gene editing. Ascidian, which is eligible for up to $1.8 billion in milestones, will conduct discovery and certain preclinical activities with Roche, after which the pharma will take over...