Enlaza Therapeutics Inc and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc agreed to collaborate on drug discovery aimed at creating small format drug conjugates and T cell engagers to treat certain autoimmune diseases and to improve conditioning in sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. Enlaza will receive $45 million in an upfront payment and equity investment. Vertex will work with Enlaza’s covalent biologics platform, called War-Lock, which uses proprietary non-natural amino acids to precision-engineer biologic medicines, resulting in an expanded therapeutic window.
