Just a few months after ripping up the central nervous system-focused portion of its RIPK1 deal with Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly has now thrown out the rest of the pact too.
Lilly notified Rigel that the deal is off on April 16, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, with the termination taking effect on June 15.
The deal centered on Rigel’s RIPK1 inhibitor, ocadusertib, with Lilly paying $125 million upfront and promising as much as $835 million more to develop the small molecule for inflammatory and autoimmune indications. The February 2021 agreement also involved teaming up on other RIPK1 inhibitors for CNS diseases, an effort Lilly walked away from last November.
“Ocadusertib did not meet our high bar for continued development,” a Lilly spokesperson told Fierce.
Full rights to ocadusertib and the other RIPK1 inhibitors have reverted back to Rigel, according to the filing. A phase 2 trial of ocadusertib in rheumatoid arthritis is still recruiting, according to the federal clinical trial database.
“Rigel is currently evaluating the impact of the termination,” the company wrote. “The company does not expect to receive future milestones or royalties under the agreement.”
Reached by Fierce for comment, a Rigel spokesperson said that “all available information” is included in the filing.
Related
The canceled deal adds to a string of woes for the RIPK1 field. Genentech recently canned one of the inhibitors after the candidate flunked a phase 2 trial, while Sanofi similarly tore up a RIPK1 pact with Denali Therapeutics.
GSK had the first RIPK1 inhibitor okayed for clinical research in 2014, but that asset, GSK2982772, is no longer listed in GSK’s pipeline. The British pharma also dropped a RIPK1 candidate for prostate cancer in 2019.
RIPK stands for receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase, with RIPK1 part of a family of enzymes that help regulate inflammation and cell death. Other companies, like Odyssey Therapeutics, are pursuing drugs targeting a different member of the family, RIPK2.
