What happened
After the market closed Wednesday, Repare Therapeutics (RPTX 1.38%) announced that it had entered into a licensing and collaboration deal with Roche (RHHBY 2.07%) for its experimental cancer drug, camonsertib, also known as RP-3500. In the wake of that news, Repare shares skyrocketed, and were up by 36.5% as of 11:58 a.m. ET on Thursday.
So what
Major deals with big partners almost always provide solid catalysts for biotech stocks. The spectacular gain for Repare Thursday seems to be warranted, especially in light of the details of its agreement with the Swiss healthcare giant.
Repare will receive $125 million up front from Roche. It also could receive up to $1.2 billion in contingent milestone payments if camonsertib hits certain clinical, regulatory, commercial, and sales goals. Up to $55 million of that total could be received in the near term. If camonsertib wins regulatory approval, Repare stands to receive royalties on net sales in the high-single-digit to high-teens percentages.
As icing on the cake, the small drugmaker has an option to split U.S. development, commercialization, and profit sharing on a 50-50 basis with Roche. This could boost Repare's revenue in the future if camonsertib earns approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Repare's transaction with Roche isn't quite a done deal yet. It must first be cleared by antitrust regulators. However, the companies are highly likely to jump that hurdle.
The bigger challenge for Repare now is to continue advancing camonsertib in clinical testing. It's currently evaluating the experimental drug in phase 1/2 clinical studies targeting solid tumors. Repaire expects to provide updates later this year on its trials of camonsertib as a monotherapy and in combination with PARP inhibitors or gemcitabine chemotherapy.
