Roche returns rights on ORY-1001

As reported yesterday, Roche has decided to discontinue the development of ORY-1001 (a selective LSD1 inhibitor) and return the rights to Oryzon, according to which the decision was due to Roche reprioritising its portfolio and not driven by data. The process may take several months and during this period Roche will also finalise a dose-finding Phase I study in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and hand the data over to Oryzon. The company is now free to initiate planning for further clinical activities, although it will likely take some time to present updated ORY-1001 development plans. Oryzon also mentioned that around the time when ORY-1001 was out-licensed to Roche in April 2014, it was contacted by several other companies interested in epigenetic programmes in oncology. In our view, this suggests that the company could potentially replace Roche with another partner interested in epigenetics and LSD1 inhibition.