Boehringer takes on AbbVie in a novel checkpoint

Boehringer Ingelheim isn’t a big oncology hitter, but it’s been trying to change that for some time, and yesterday it bought into what it thinks could be the next big thing in checkpoint inhibition. The group’s purchase of Nerio Therapeutics gives it preclinical small molecule candidates against PTPN1 and 2 – a mechanism with little industry activity, although AbbVie has a couple of clinical-stage contenders here through its partnership with Calico. Boehringer is paying up to $1.3bn for Nerio, although it didn’t give an up-front fee, so presumably this is small. The German group said that PTPN1/2 inhibition could become the “centrepiece” of its immuno-oncology portfolio; Boehringer missed out on the PD-(L)1 wave, although it does have a low-key checkpoint inhibitor, ezabenlimab, among a cancer portfolio that has recently been slimmed down. The company has struck a couple of other oncology deals this year, expanding an agreement with OSE Immunotherapeutics to include an anti-PD-1/cytokine platform, and inking a discovery collaboration with 3T Biosciences. However, Boehringer’s purchases haven’t always ended well: a ROR1 inhibitor gained via the $1.5bn acquisition of NBE-Therapeutics was quietly shelved last year.

The PTPN1/PTPN2 inhibitor pipeline

Source: OncologyPipeline.