At a Glance
- Company: C4 Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CCCC); Roche
- Location: Watertown, Massachusetts (C4T); Basel, Switzerland (Roche)
- Deal value: $20M upfront; over $1B in milestones plus tiered royalties
- Focus area: Degrader-antibody conjugates (DACs) for two oncology targets
- Next steps: Joint DAC research; Roche leads preclinical, clinical and commercialisation
What happened?
C4 Therapeutics and Roche announced a new collaboration on 9 April 2026 to discover and develop degrader-antibody conjugates (DACs) targeting two undisclosed oncology proteins, with an option for a third target. C4T receives $20 million upfront and is eligible for over $1 billion in discovery, development and commercial milestones plus tiered royalties, marking the third time the two companies have expanded their partnership since 2016.
Why does it matter?
DACs represent an emerging hybrid modality that fuses two of oncology’s most validated approaches: targeted protein degradation (TPD) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). By engineering a degrader as the payload inside an ADC format, DACs could achieve selective intracellular protein destruction in tumour cells with the tumour-targeting precision of an antibody — potentially overcoming resistance mechanisms that limit both standalone degraders and conventional ADC cytotoxic payloads.
Who’s behind it?
C4T contributes its TORPEDO® platform — a proprietary system for designing highly catalytic, selective degrader payloads — while Roche brings a decade of ADC expertise to select and design the antibody component and conjugate it to C4T’s degrader payload. Roche will be fully responsible for preclinical development, clinical trials and commercialisation of resulting DAC candidates.
How was it achieved?
The two organisations first partnered in January 2016 on targeted protein degradation, expanded in December 2018, and have now entered their third iteration of collaboration. This decade-long foundation of trust allowed both parties to quickly align on a joint research plan covering two exclusive DAC programmes and a third-target option, structured to give C4T upfront and near-term discovery milestones while Roche assumes all downstream development risk and cost.
What’s next?
C4T and Roche will begin joint research under the DAC collaboration immediately, with C4T designing degrader payloads using TORPEDO® and Roche engineering the antibody-degrader conjugation. Alongside this new deal, C4T continues to advance cemsidomide in its Phase 2 MOMENTUM trial and a Phase 1b combination study with elranatamab in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, supported by $297.1M in cash that the company says will fund operations to end of 2028.
What are people saying?
Andrew Hirsch (C4T CEO): “Our new collaboration leverages C4T’s ability to design highly catalytic and selective degraders… alongside Roche’s extensive experience developing ADCs.” Boris Zaïtra (Roche BD): “Relationship built on a decade of trust… pleased to pioneer the emerging modality of DACs.”