Jnana Therapeutics Announces Milestone Achieved Under First Collaboration with Roche

Achievement of research milestone for immune program triggers milestone payment

BOSTON, May 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Jnana Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging its next-generation chemoproteomics platform to discover medicines for challenging-to-drug targets, announces the achievement of a milestone from its first collaboration agreement with Roche (SIX:RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY).

Jnana has advanced a Roche-partnered immune program inhibiting a protein-protein interaction to a key preclinical stage, triggering a milestone payment. The program is part of the first collaboration agreement between Jnana and Roche, which was signed in July 2020 and aims to discover and develop novel small molecule medicines for the treatment of immune-mediated and neurological diseases by targeting solute carrier (SLC) metabolite transporters. In late 2022, Jnana and Roche extended this relationship by entering into a second collaboration and license agreement to discover novel small molecule drugs directed to a diverse range of target classes beyond the SLC family in cancer, immune-mediated, and neurological diseases.

“We are very excited about the advancements we have made in our strategic collaboration with Roche, as evidenced by the achievement of this milestone,” said Joanne Kotz, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO. “The power of our RAPID platform to address historically difficult-to-drug targets — including protein-protein interactions — has enabled this progress, as well as progression of our internal pipeline.”

About RAPID
RAPID (Reactive Affinity Probe Interaction Discovery) is Jnana’s next-generation chemoproteomics platform designed to discover medicines for highly validated but challenging-to-drug targets, including its wholly owned clinical-stage program targeting the phenylalanine transporter SLC6A19 as an approach to treat phenylketonuria (PKU). The platform leverages a high throughput, binding-based screening approach that is inherently flexible, enabling the discovery of binding sites across the surface of a target protein and the identification of small molecules that elicit diverse pharmacologies. Jnana has used RAPID to identify first-in-class compounds and address a range of target classes, including transcription factors, signaling scaffold proteins, and phosphatases.

About Jnana Therapeutics
Jnana Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging its next-generation RAPID chemoproteomics platform to discover medicines for highly validated, challenging-to-drug targets to treat diseases with high unmet need. Jnana is focused on developing first- and best-in-class therapies to treat a wide range of diseases, including rare diseases, immune-mediated diseases, and cancer. Jnana’s wholly owned lead program, JNT-517, which targets an allosteric site on the phenylalanine transporter SLC6A19, is a potential first-in-class oral approach for the treatment of phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare genetic metabolic disease. Located in Boston, Jnana brings together scientific leaders in small molecule drug discovery and development, a highly experienced management team, and the backing of leading life science investors Bain Capital Life Sciences, RA Capital Management, Polaris Partners, Versant Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, and AbbVie Ventures. For more information, please visit www.jnanatx.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact
Adam Silverstein
Scient PR
[email protected]