Bayer pens $547M biobucks pact with biotech pushing the boundaries of noncoding RNA

(August 28, 2024) | By James Waldron.

Bayer executives were keen to stress to Fierce this summer that the German pharma giant’s appetite for dealmaking hasn’t been curbed by a groupwide restructuring. Its latest cancer-focused collaboration suggests Bayer has indeed retained a taste for intriguing new modalities.

The company has signed a deal worth more than half a billion biobucks to partner up on two programs with NextRNA Therapeutics, a biotech working on long noncoding RNA (lncRNA)-driven diseases. The collaboration will focus on oncology indications with high unmet need, the companies said in an Aug. 28 news release.

NextRNA will be in line for a total of $547 million across upfront and near-term milestone payments, research funding and development and commercial milestone payments, on top of tiered royalties on net sales should either of these programs make it to market.