Bayer inks Arvinas deal to develop protein degraders

Bayer is paying Arvinas $17.5 million (€15.5 million) upfront to develop protein-degrading treatments for cardiovascular, oncological and gynecological diseases. The partners will apply Arvinas  targeted protein degrader technology to targets selected by Bayer.Arvinas moved the first targeted protein degrader into human testing earlier this year, beating rival biotechs and Big Pharmas including C4 Therapeutics, Kymera Therapeutics, Merck and Novartis to that milestone. The number of companies pursuing Arvinas reflects excitement about the potential to use cellular machinery to degrade disease-causing proteins rather than simply block their activity.