Enodia will begin by screening compounds against targets the companies have not disclosed. The Paris-based biotech announced the research collaboration and license agreement on October 13, 2026, according to the company announcement.
Potential payments exceed $500 million, but that figure is conditional. The deal includes an undisclosed upfront payment and milestones tied to research and clinical work. Commercial milestones also apply, alongside tiered royalties on net sales. Neither the upfront amount nor the individual milestone values or royalty rates were disclosed.
Under the agreement, Enodia will handle discovery and screen potential inhibitors. It will optimize candidates, then advance them through preclinical development. Pfizer takes over for clinical development. The company will also handle manufacturing and regulatory work before leading commercialization.
Sec61 is a membrane protein translocon. It moves newly made proteins across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, where they undergo further processing. Enodia says its platform selectively modulates Sec61 to inhibit disease-driving proteins as they are made while preserving essential physiological functions.
The collaboration covers several undisclosed targets. The companies have named no specific candidates or therapeutic indications, and have set no clinical-trial timelines. Enodia has discussed its technology in connection with oncology. It has also cited inflammatory and immune diseases, as well as certain liver and kidney diseases. None of those indications has been assigned to the Pfizer programs.
Enodia’s broader pipeline focuses on inflammation and immunology, with oncology programs as well. The company also sees opportunities in virology.
In March 2026, Enodia acquired preclinical Sec61 inhibitor assets from Kezar Life Sciences, including the KZR-261 program. Fierce Biotech reported that Enodia paid $1 million upfront for the asset package. Pfizer Ventures had also participated in Enodia’s earlier $25 million seed financing. That investment preceded the new collaboration and is separate from it.
Pfizer is entering a field where another pharmaceutical partnership recently expanded. On October 5, 2026, Eli Lilly broadened its agreement with Gate Bioscience, adding one Molecular Gate target and an option to add a second. The expanded deal has a potential value above $870 million. Payments depend on research milestones, with further milestones tied to preclinical and clinical work. Commercial milestones also apply.
Gate will conduct the initial discovery work. Lilly receives exclusive worldwide rights to develop and manufacture products for selected targets, and it can commercialize them, as detailed in this Lilly-Gate deal update. Gate’s molecular gate technology is designed to block disease-associated proteins from passing through the Sec61 channel, causing them to degrade.
For the Pfizer collaboration, the next defined work sits with Enodia’s discovery and optimization teams. Selected candidates could later transfer to Pfizer for clinical development and subsequent stages. The agreement covers drug discovery and development; it does not announce a clinical-stage candidate or an approved medicine.
