Roche has agreed to fund $96m for Genentech to collaborate with Affimed to discover new cancer immunotherapies, sending the latter’s share price soaring. They will collaborate on discovery and research, and Genentech will take charge of clinical development. Roche will take advantage of Affimed’s ROCK platform to engineer drugs that affect the activity of T-cells and natural killer cells and direct them against cancers. Affimed could earn a further $5bn in royalties and development, regulatory and commercial milestones.

“Roche has agreed to fund $96m for Genentech to collaborate with Affimed to discover new cancer immunotherapies. “

Adi Hoess, CEO of Affimed, said: “We are incredibly excited to work with Genentech, a leader in oncology with a long history of excellence in the discovery and development of medicines to treat cancer. This strategic partnership marks an important step on our path to leverage the full potential of innate immune cells in oncology.”