Debiopharm Acquires Rights to Repare's PKMYT1 Inhibitor in $272 Million Deal

Debiopharm, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, has entered into an agreement with Repare Therapeutics to acquire the rights to lunresertib, a PKMYT1 inhibitor, in a deal worth up to $272 million. This acquisition comes seven months after Repare paused its development plans for the cancer drug.

Deal Structure and Financial Terms

Under the terms of the agreement, Debiopharm will pay Repare an upfront fee of $10 million, with an additional $5 million in near-term payments. The deal also includes potential clinical, regulatory, commercial, and sales milestones totaling up to $257 million, as well as single-digit royalties on sales.

Bertrand Ducrey, CEO of Debiopharm, expressed optimism about the acquisition, stating, "Based on very promising phase 1/1b clinical data, we believe the combination of lunresertib and Debio 0123 is highly synergistic and could potentially drive rapid and deep tumor regressions."

Clinical Development Plans

Debiopharm will take over the ongoing study of lunresertib in combination with its WEE1 inhibitor, Debio 0123. This combination is being explored as a synthetic lethality approach for difficult-to-treat cancers.

The acquisition builds upon an existing collaboration between Repare and Debiopharm, which had been studying the combination of lunresertib and Debio 0123. Ducrey emphasized the potential of this approach, saying, "We believe the synthetic lethality approach of lunresertib in combination with Debio 0123 will allow us to bring this innovative precision therapy to patients with difficult-to-treat cancers."

Repare's Strategic Refocus

For Repare Therapeutics, this deal represents a strategic shift in its pipeline priorities. Steve Forte, CEO of Repare, commented on the agreement: "Our recent business development efforts have continued to enable Repare to focus on the advancement of our clinical priorities and sustained value creation."

Following two rounds of pipeline prioritizations in the past year, Repare is now concentrating on two ongoing phase 1 clinical trials:

1. The LIONS trial, evaluating RP-1664, a PLK4 inhibitor, in adult and adolescent patients with TRIM37-high solid tumors.
2. The POLAR trial, assessing RP-3467, a Polθ ATPase inhibitor, alone and in combination with Lynparza in patients with ovarian cancer, breast cancer, castration-resistant prostate cancer, and pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Forte added, "We remain focused on two ongoing phase 1 clinical trials with readouts expected in the second half of 2025: the LIONS trial evaluating our RP-1664 PLK4 inhibitor and the POLAR trial evaluating our RP-3467 Polθ ATPase inhibitor."

This deal marks a significant development in the oncology space, potentially advancing new treatment options for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers while allowing Repare to streamline its pipeline and focus on its most promising assets.