Nurix surged in pre-market trading! Acquired rights related to the blood cancer drug bexobrutideg for $2.3 billion from Roche

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, pharmaceutical giant Roche (RHHBY.US) has agreed to pay up to $2.3 billion to U.S. biopharmaceutical company Nurix Therapeutics (NRIX.US) for rights related to its experimental blood cancer drug bexobrutideg. Following this news, Nurix's stock surged over 49% in pre-market trading on Monday.

Under the agreement announced on Monday, Nurix will receive a $700 million upfront payment. Roche and Nurix will jointly bear the development costs and split the profits from the U.S. market; outside the U.S., Roche will be responsible for commercialization. The parties expect the transaction to be completed in the third quarter of 2026.

This collaboration further reflects Roche's strategy to strengthen its oncology drug portfolio. As several blockbuster drugs approach maturity, Roche is seeking new growth drivers. Roche bets that bexobrutideg can help patients who have lost response to existing therapies.

Nurix focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing oral small molecule therapies designed to modulate cellular protein levels as novel treatments for cancer and immune diseases. The company's R&D pipeline includes targeted protein degraders of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) and inhibitors of Casitas B cell lymphoma proto-oncogene-B (CBL-B, an E3 ligase that regulates T cell activation). One of the candidates in its protein degradation product line, NX-2127, is an orally available BTK degrader for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B cell malignancies.

Data shows that bexobrutideg is a novel oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) degrader developed by Nurix. Data presented at the 2025 American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting last year indicated that in a Phase 1a clinical trial treating patients with R/R chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), among 47 patients eligible for efficacy evaluation, the objective response rate (ORR) for those treated with bexobrutideg reached 83%, with a median progression-free survival of 22.1 months and a median duration of response of 20.1 months. Notably, these patients had previously received multiple treatments, including covalent and/or non-covalent BTK inhibitors. In the Phase 1b patient cohort, early data showed that patients receiving a dose of 600mg of bexobrutideg had an ORR of 83.3%. The company plans to use a daily dose of 600mg for further development.

Additionally, bexobrutideg also demonstrated anti-cancer activity in a Phase 1 clinical trial for patients with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM) who had received multiple prior treatments. Among 28 evaluable WM patients, the ORR reached 75%. The company's Chief Medical Officer Paula O'Connor stated that the data shows that as treatment time extends, responses are durable and deepening, and the drug is well tolerated, consistent with previous disclosures. The company added that the encouraging efficacy and good tolerability of the drug support its continued development Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors are an important treatment option for various B-cell hematologic malignancies. However, the emergence of resistance to BTK inhibitors and the function of BTK in mediating signaling independent of kinase activity highlight the importance of employing other means to target BTK protein function. BTK-targeted protein degraders provide an effective strategy to overcome BTK inhibitor resistance by directly inducing the degradation of BTK protein via the proteasome.

Roche and Nurix stated that compared to current Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors, the drug bexobrutideg may have advantages as it is expected to overcome the issue of resistance mutations that arise during treatment