The Big Biotech will pay $40 million upfront for the option to license TRPH-395, while committing to an additional $940 million or more in future R&D and sales milestone payments to Triphase Accelerator, a drug development company that looks to bring the compound through phase 2 proof of concept.

Discovered by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), TRPH-395 aims to inhibit interactions with the WDR5 protein, to induce wider epigenetic modification of histones and disrupt the histone methylation that can support different cancers. While the drug is currently in late lead optimization, according to Triphase, preclinical data has shown broad activity across a range of cancer cell lines, including in both solid and blood tumors. Spun out from the OICR, Triphase has been supported by the institute's commercialization partner, FACIT, which had originally seeded Propellon Therapeutics to develop the drug and advance the WDR5 platform. Propellon and FACIT later transferred the program over to Triphase for clinical development. Triphase and FACIT describe the deal as the largest transaction to date for a Canadian-discovered preclinical asset, following multiple formal offers from companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan.