Roche has penned a backloaded $2 billion deal with hematology biotech Atavistik Bio to develop allosteric small molecules for cardiometabolic diseases.

Under the agreement, the Swiss pharma will pay Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Atavistik $70 million up front, with the promise of potentially up to $1.9 billion to follow in milestone payments. In return, the companies will use Atavistik’s metabolite-protein screening (AMPS) platform to “identify novel functional binding pockets” on proteins that could form the basis for new treatments for cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases (CVRM), according to a Sept. 24 release.

Atavistik is tasked with discovery and research activities, before Roche takes over for further preclinical work and beyond.

Atavistik touts its platform as a way to “uncover cryptic, biologically relevant binding pockets” in order to generate small molecule drugs against targets that are typically difficult to modulate.

The biotech’s lead asset is ATV-1601, an oral allosteric inhibitor of AKT1 that is undergoing a phase 1/2 study for hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, a severe, multi-organ disease. Atavistik also has allosteric JAK2 selective inhibitors in preclinical development for myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Those programs have been bankrolled by $160 million in series B funds raised over the past year from the likes of RA Capital Management and Regeneron Ventures.

“This collaboration reflects the strength and broad applicability of our platform across therapeutic areas, further validating our approach to allosteric drug discovery,” Atavistik CEO Bryan Stuart said in the release.

“We are excited to extend the application of our platform into CVRM diseases by leveraging Roche’s deep expertise in the field, while we remain focused internally on advancing a robust pipeline of potentially best-in-class therapies for patients with rare hematologic diseases,” Stuart added.

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