Nimble leaves Roche to commercialize chemical synthesis technology

Nimble will operate as an independent business after Roche spun out the company and will look to establish strategic partnerships to jointly develop ‘unique’ drug candidates across various therapeutic areas, according to CEO, Jigar Patel.

Roche acquired Nimble​, then NimbleGen, in a $272.5m (€203m) deal in 2007. The Roche team that helped develop the chemical synthesis technology will join the fully independent company.

Board director at Nimble, Deval Lashkari, said in a statement, “The Roche team saw the value in separating the business to enable it to expand its platform and work on a variety of therapeutic areas with strategic partners.”​

According to Nimble, the chemical synthesis technology platform can synthesize ‘millions’ of unique natural and modified peptide-based molecules.

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Nimble has also developed biological assays that can be used for empirical optimization of molecules.