Roche has entered into a major licensing and collaboration agreement with Nurix Therapeutics for bexobrutideg, an investigational Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) degrader, in a deal valued at up to $2.3 billion. 

The agreement underscores Roche’s commitment to advancing innovative therapies for blood cancers and other serious diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will pay Nurix $700 million upfront, with the potential for additional development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments that could bring the total value of the deal to $2.3 billion. Roche will fund 60% of development costs, while Nurix will be responsible for the remaining 40%.

The partnership grants Roche commercialization rights outside the United States, while both companies will co-commercialize bexobrutideg across all approved indications within the US. The collaboration will support the drug’s clinical development across B-cell malignancies, immunology, and neurology.

Bexobrutideg is designed to degrade the BTK protein rather than simply inhibit its activity, differentiating it from currently approved BTK inhibitors. BTK plays a critical role in the survival, proliferation, and migration of malignant B cells, making it an important therapeutic target in several blood cancers.

Unlike traditional BTK inhibitors, which block the protein’s activity, bexobrutideg removes the BTK protein from the cell entirely, eliminating both its kinase activity and scaffolding function. This mechanism could potentially overcome treatment resistance that often develops with existing BTK-targeted therapies.

The BTK inhibitor market currently includes therapies such as Imbruvica, developed by AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson; Calquence from AstraZeneca; Brukinsa from BeOne Medicines; and Jaypirca from Eli Lilly. Among these, Brukinsa generated approximately $3.9 billion in global sales during 2025.

Levi Garraway, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development at Roche, said: “Our goal is to create new possibilities for patients with challenging diseases. We believe bexobrutideg could represent a major leap forward in the fight against complex blood cancers and other diseases. We are proud to join forces with Nurix to accelerate these potential breakthroughs.”