The undisclosed target is a central regulator of inflammation that is distinct from the previously disclosed STAT6 program
Nurix DEL-AI drug discovery engine generated a drug discovery program to this previously undruggable target
Nurix received a $15 million license extension fee from Sanofi under its 2019 collaboration agreement, bringing the total amount received by Nurix to date to $105 million
Nurix is eligible for an additional $465 million in development, regulatory and commercial milestones for this program as well as potential future royalties and retains an option to co-develop and co-promote in the United States with the parties splitting U.S. profits and losses
SAN FRANCISCO, April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nurix Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: NRIX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of targeted protein degradation medicines, announced today that Sanofi has exclusively licensed an undisclosed Nurix program targeting a previously undruggable transcription factor for autoimmune diseases. The undisclosed target is a central regulator of the inflammation response and is distinct from the previously disclosed STAT6 degrader program.
“Using our DEL-AI platform, we successfully identified novel binders from which we derived a series of targeted protein degraders and stand-alone target binders for this previously undruggable target,” said Gwenn M. Hansen, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Nurix. “This high value target is a transcription factor involved in the regulation of proinflammatory cytokines serving as a central regulator of inflammation response in autoimmune diseases where targeted protein degradation could offer an innovative treatment option.”
“Sanofi’s dedication to this program expands our mutual drug discovery pipeline in autoimmune disease and speaks to the productivity of our collaboration,” said Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Nurix. “In addition, the highly novel nature of this target further validates the power of Nurix’s DEL-AI discovery platform to drive the discovery and development of truly innovative drugs. Partnerships are an important part of Nurix’s business model, adding non-dilutive capital and expanding our pipeline by retaining product opt-in rights in the United States. To date, Nurix has received $460 million from partners, including $105 million in payments received from the Sanofi collaboration. We look forward to continuing to advance these programs together with Sanofi, with the shared goal of providing new therapeutic options for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory disorders.”
Under the collaboration agreement, Nurix is deploying its proprietary DEL-AI drug discovery platform to identify novel agents that use E3 ligases to induce degradation of specified drug targets. Sanofi has the right to license drug candidates resulting from the work, and Nurix has the option to co-develop and co-promote up to two future products in the United States after studies to assess dosing, efficacy, and safety that provide clinical proof of concept. For those programs for which Nurix exercises its option to co-develop and co-promote, the parties will split U.S profits and losses evenly and Nurix will be eligible to receive royalties on ex-U.S. sales on all optioned products. For programs that Nurix does not exercise its option, Nurix will receive milestones and royalties based on global development and sales. Upon signing the agreement in December 2019, Sanofi made an upfront payment of $55 million to Nurix and one year later paid an additional $22 million to expand the scope of the collaboration. Including this $15 million license extension fee, Nurix has received a total of $105 million from Sanofi as part of this collaboration and remains eligible for up to $465 million in development, regulatory, and commercial milestones per licensed program as well as royalties on future sales.
About Nurix Therapeutics, Inc.
Nurix Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of targeted protein degradation medicines, the next frontier in innovative drug design aimed at improving treatment options for patients with cancer and inflammatory diseases. Nurix’s wholly owned, clinical stage pipeline includes degraders of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK), a B-cell signaling protein, and inhibitors of Casitas B-lineage lymphoma proto-oncogene B (CBL-B), an E3 ligase that regulates activation of multiple immune cell types including T cells and NK cells. Nurix also is advancing multiple potentially first-in-class or best-in-class degraders and degrader antibody conjugates (DACs) in its preclinical pipeline. Nurix’s partnered drug discovery pipeline consists of preclinical stage degraders of IRAK4 and STAT6, as well as multiple additional programs under collaboration agreements with Gilead Sciences, Inc., Sanofi S.A. and Pfizer Inc., within which Nurix retains certain options for co-development, co-commercialization and profit sharing in the United States for multiple drug candidates. Powered by a fully AI-integrated discovery engine capable of tackling any protein class, and coupled with unparalleled ligase expertise, Nurix’s dedicated team has built a formidable advantage in translating the science of targeted protein degradation into clinical advancements. Nurix aims to establish degrader-based treatments at the forefront of patient care, writing medicine’s next chapter with a new script to outmatch disease. Nurix is headquartered in San Francisco, California.