C4 Therapeutics Expands Long-Term Partnership with Roche Through New Collaboration Agreement Focused on Discovering and Developing Degrader-Antibody Conjugates (DACs)
Rhea-AI Summary
C4 Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CCCC) expanded its long-term partnership with Roche on April 9, 2026 to discover and develop degrader-antibody conjugates (DACs) for oncology. The agreement covers two collaboration-exclusive programs, an option for a third target, and combines C4T's TORPEDO platform with Roche's ADC expertise.
Financial terms include a $20 million upfront payment, additional payment if Roche exercises a third-target option, near-term discovery milestones, eligibility for over $1 billion in discovery, regulatory and commercial milestones, and tiered royalties on future sales.
AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.
Positive
- $20 million upfront payment to C4T
- Eligible for over $1 billion in milestone payments
- Roche to handle preclinical, clinical and commercialization
- Collaboration covers two programs with option for a third
Negative
- Roche holds responsibility for advancing DAC candidates through development
- Tiered royalties are subject to reductions under certain contract terms
- Targets are undisclosed, limiting near-term program transparency
News Market Reaction – CCCC
On the day this news was published, CCCC declined 2.41%, reflecting a moderate negative market reaction. Argus tracked a peak move of +27.7% during that session. Argus tracked a trough of -17.5% from its starting point during tracking. Our momentum scanner triggered 37 alerts that day, indicating elevated trading interest and price volatility. This price movement removed approximately $7M from the company's valuation, bringing the market cap to $282.98M at that time. Trading volume was elevated at 2.2x the daily average, suggesting increased selling activity.
Data tracked by StockTitan Argus on the day of publication.
Key Figures
Market Reality Check
Peers on Argus
CCCC is up 5.84% while close peers show mixed moves: ELTX -2.78%, IPHA -2.68%, NTHI -10.5%, TRDA +0.42%, SLS +1.46%, indicating a stock-specific reaction.
Historical Context
| Date | Event | Sentiment | Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 25 | Phase 1b trial start | Positive | +7.6% | First patient dosed in Phase 1b cemsidomide plus elranatamab trial. |
| Mar 09 | Inducement grant | Neutral | -13.1% | Stock option inducement grant to new employee under Nasdaq Rule 5635(c)(4). |
| Feb 26 | Earnings and update | Positive | +0.4% | Reported 2025 results, cash runway to end 2028, and program progress. |
| Feb 23 | Conference participation | Neutral | +6.5% | Announcement of participation in March healthcare conferences with webcasts. |
| Feb 23 | Phase 2 trial start | Positive | +6.5% | First patient dosed in Phase 2 MOMENTUM trial of cemsidomide in myeloma. |
Stock often reacts positively to clinical and partnership/pipeline milestones, while administrative updates can see negative or muted moves.
Over the last few months, C4 Therapeutics reported 2025 financials with $297.1M in cash funding operations to the end of 2028, advanced cemsidomide into a Phase 2 MOMENTUM trial targeting ~100 patients, and initiated combination development plans with elranatamab. News on trial initiations and conference participation saw price gains of 6–7.6%, while an inducement grant announcement corresponded with a -13.09% move. Today’s Roche collaboration extends this strategy of leveraging partnerships for targeted protein degradation in oncology.
Regulatory & Risk Context
An effective S-3 shelf filed on Nov 21, 2025 registers up to $400,000,000 of securities, including up to $125,000,000 of common stock under an at-the-market program. The shelf is intended to provide flexible access to capital for research, development and pipeline expansion and had no recorded usage in the provided data.
Market Pulse Summary
This announcement expands C4 Therapeutics’ long-standing Roche partnership into degrader-antibody conjugates, adding a $20 million upfront payment and eligibility for over $1 billion in milestones plus royalties. It builds on recent progress with cemsidomide and multiple clinical trials. Investors may monitor execution on the DAC programs, future milestone triggers, and capital usage under the existing $400,000,000 shelf registration alongside previously disclosed net losses and cash runway to the end of 2028.
Key Terms
degrader-antibody conjugate medical
DACs medical
antibody-drug conjugation medical
ADC medical
targeted protein degradation medical
AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.
Agreement Focused on Developing DACs With Payloads For Two Oncology Targets, With an Option for a Third Target
C4T to Develop Degraders With Payload Properties; Roche to Conjugate Payloads to Targeted Antibodies
C4T to Receive
WATERTOWN, Mass., April 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- C4 Therapeutics, Inc. (C4T) (Nasdaq: CCCC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to advancing targeted protein degradation science today announced that it has entered into a new collaboration agreement with Roche (SIX: RO, ROP; OTCQX: RHHBY) to advance research in the emerging degrader-antibody conjugate (DAC) modality. Working together, C4T and Roche will combine antibody-drug conjugation (ADC) and targeted protein degradation (TPD) to develop a new way to treat cancers that leverages both the specificity and catalytic efficiency of degraders with the delivery capabilities of ADCs.
“For the past decade, C4T and Roche have worked together to drive research in targeted protein degradation and to establish this modality as a new way to treat cancer,” said Andrew Hirsch, president and chief executive officer of C4 Therapeutics. “Our new collaboration leverages C4T’s ability to design highly catalytic and selective degraders, as well as degrader payloads for DACs, alongside Roche’s extensive experience developing ADCs with specific binding. Together, these capabilities build a powerful new modality that can offer transformative medicines for patients.”
“Roche has been a believer in targeted protein degradation and its potential for differentiation early on, when partnering with C4T for the first time in 2016,” said Boris Zaïtra, head of corporate business development, Roche. “Our relationship with C4 Therapeutics is built on a decade of trust and shared scientific ambition. We are pleased to enter into our third collaboration, expanding our long-standing partnership to pioneer the emerging modality of degrader-antibody conjugates (DACs).”
Under the joint research plan, C4T and Roche will collaborate on two programs to develop DACs against undisclosed oncology targets exclusive to the collaboration. C4T will use its proprietary TORPEDO® platform to design degrader payload candidates. Roche will select and design the antibody as well as conjugate the antibody to the degrader payload. Roche will be responsible for advancing DAC candidates through preclinical and clinical development as well as commercialization.
C4T will receive a
About Degrader-Antibody Conjugates (DACs)
ADCs over the last 15 years have made important contributions to cancer therapy, but their clinical utility has historically been challenged by a limited therapeutic margin. Degrader-based ADCs, or degrader-antibody conjugates (DACs), represent a potential step-change in this modality. By utilizing degrader payloads that target specific cellular dependencies, DACs offer a superior therapeutic index. These small-molecule degraders are characterized by a catalytic mechanism of action—a feature unique to this approach—rendering them exceptionally well suited for targeted antibody delivery.
About C4 Therapeutics
C4 Therapeutics (C4T) (Nasdaq: CCCC) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to delivering on the promise of targeted protein degradation science to create a new generation of medicines that transforms patients’ lives. C4T is progressing targeted oncology programs through clinical studies and leveraging its TORPEDO® platform to efficiently design and optimize small-molecule medicines to address difficult-to-treat diseases. C4T’s degrader medicines are designed to harness the body’s natural protein recycling system to rapidly degrade disease-causing proteins, offering the potential to overcome drug resistance, drug undruggable targets and improve patient outcomes. For more information, please visit www.c4therapeutics.com.
About the TORPEDO® Platform
The proprietary TORPEDO® platform drives C4 Therapeutics’s (C4T) efforts to create a new generation of small molecule medicines centered around heterobivalent degraders (BiDAC™ degraders), molecular glue degraders (MonoDAC® degraders) and degrader-antibody conjugates (DACs). The TORPEDO platform integrates DNA-encoded library (DEL) technology, a Cereblon toolkit, diverse chemical libraries, degrader design assisted by AI-driven ternary complex models and proteomics to selectively target disease-causing proteins. C4T utilizes the TORPEDO platform to design and develop highly catalytic, specific and potent degraders with the ability to penetrate the blood brain barrier across a range of clinically validated pathways and diseases that include oncology, inflammation and neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. C4T further leverages the TORPEDO platform to develop payloads for degrader-antibody conjugates (DACs), an emerging modality for hard-to-treat cancers.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” of C4 Therapeutics, Inc. within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may include, but may not be limited to, express or implied statements regarding our ability to develop potential therapies for patients; the design and potential efficacy of our therapeutic approaches; the predictive capability of our TORPEDO® platform in the development of novel, selective, orally bioavailable BiDAC™ and MonoDAC® degraders; our ability to achieve potential future milestone or royalty payments; and our ability to fund our future operations. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause our actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the section entitled “Risk Factors” in C4 Therapeutics’ most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and/or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release and C4 Therapeutics undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.
Contacts:
Investors:
Courtney Solberg
Associate Director, Investor Relations
CSolberg@c4therapeutics.com
Media:
Loraine Spreen
Senior Director, Corporate Communications & Patient Advocacy
LSpreen@c4therapeutics.com
