Monte Rosa's Stock Gains on Signing $5.7B Licensing Deal With Novartis

Shares of clinical-stage biotech Monte Rosa Therapeutics GLUE rose 44% on Monday after announcing that it had entered into a collaboration deal with pharma giant Novartis NVS to develop novel molecular glue degraders (MGD) for immune-mediated diseases.

According to Monte Rosa, MGD is a class of small-molecule protein degraders with the potential to treat diseases that other therapeutic modalities cannot effectively address. Under the terms of the deal, Novartis will receive an exclusive license to an undisclosed discovery target developed using Monte Rosa’s proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered platform, QuEEN. NVS will be responsible for the clinical development and commercialization of this candidate.

In addition, Novartis will also receive options to license two programs from GLUE’s growing preclinical immunology portfolio. However, Monte Rosa clarified that its publicly disclosed pipeline programs are outside the scope of this deal.

In exchange for these rights, Monte Rosa will receive an upfront payment of $120 million plus option maintenance payments. The company is also eligible for option exercise payments and development, regulatory and sales milestones. In total, the deal carries a potential value of up to $5.7 billion. Novartis will also pay Monte Rosa royalties on future sales of the drug.

This deal marks Monte Rosa’s second collaboration with Novartis in less than a year. Back in October 2024, the company signed a global exclusive development and commercialization license agreement with Novartis to advance the development of multiple investigational VAV1-directed MGD candidates, also for immune-mediated conditions. One such candidate under this deal is MRT-6160, which is expected to enter mid-stage development soon.

GLUE Stock’s Performance

Both investors and analysts were impressed with the licensing deal. The new deal with Novartis also significantly bolsters Monte Rosa’s existing cash balance of $295.5 million (as of June 2025-end), which the company expects to fund operations into 2028. Some investors believe the deal further validates Monte Rosa’s QuEEN platform and its investigational MGD pipeline.

Shares of the company have underperformed the industry so far this year, as shown in the chart below.

Recent Developments in GLUE Stock

Beyond MRT-6160, the company is advancing the clinical development of two pipeline candidates. These include the NEK7-directed MGD MRT-8102 (targeting inflammatory diseases) and GSPT1-directed MGD MRT-2359 (for solid tumors), both of which are being evaluated in early-stage studies.

Monte Rosa recently dosed the first study participants in a phase I study evaluating MRT-8102 for inflammatory diseases driven by the NLRP3 inflammasome, IL-1β, and IL-6. Initial data from this study is expected in the first half of 2026.

The company is currently evaluating MRT-2359 across separate cohorts of a phase I/II study for prostate and breast cancers. Monte Rosa expects to provide an update on both cohorts before this year’s end.

Another pharma giant attracted to Monte Rosa’s QuEEN platform is Roche RHHBY. In October 2023, the company signed a strategic collaboration and licensing deal with Roche to develop MGDs targeting cancer and neurological diseases. The overall value of this deal exceeds $2 billion.

Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc. Price

 

Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc. price | Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc. Quote

GLUE’s Zacks Rank

Monte Rosa currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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