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 February’s announcement that Novo Nordisk was partnering with a biotech developing molecular glues to treat rare diseases was the latest in a series of expensive deals hoping to utilise the nascent technology.

Since their discovery in the early 1990s, molecular glues have become a promising areas of development in the oncology and rare diseases space, though “the potential breadth of […] applications is almost unlimited,” according to Sasso, Tenchov et al. The power of these small molecules lies in their ability to bind degradation enzymes to otherwise untargetable proteins by altering their shape, enabling targeted protein degradation (TPD).

Currently, the most popular molecular glues on the market are immunomodulatory imide drugs (IMiDs), a class made up of thalidomide and its less harmful analogues; notably lenalidomide, which saw over $6bn in sales in 2023, according to GlobalData. These drugs are currently used only to treat a small range of blood cancers and autoimmune conditions, so the sales potential for other indications remains high.

GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.

The TPD market as a whole saw a 2,000% increase in the value of venture financing deals in 2022, but not all of this went to molecular glues. The other main category of TPDs are proteolysis-targeting chimeras, or PROTACs. These achieve a similar effect to the glues but act as a linking rather than a binding agent. This still creates the proximity required for the E3 enzyme to interact with the target protein but means that each PROTAC has to be designed with a specific protein in mind.


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