Nykode Bruised But Not Broken After Roche Split

The Norwegian biotech is losing a big pharma partner and up to half of its staff, but remains confident about the prospects for its personalized cancer vaccine programs.

CEO Michael Engsig and CSO/head of BD Agnete Fredriksen (Nykode)

Norway’s Nykode Therapeutics is coming to terms with Roche’s surprise decision earlier this month to end the firms' cancer vaccine partnership, with significant job losses an inevitable consequence.

The Oslo-headquartered group was stunned when Roche’s Genentech subsidiary said on 7 November that it would be pulling out of a licensing deal inked back in September 2020 for the individualized neoantigen vaccine VB10.NEO, which has been evaluated in two basket trials, N-01 and N-02, in over 10 solid tumor types. The pact, which was potentially worth up to $715m and included

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