U.S. biotechnology company Genen­tech, a unit of Swiss drug giant Roche, has agreed to invest up to $2 billion in rival Adap­tive Biotech­nolo­gies’ technology plat­form, TruTCR, to de­velop can­cer drugs.

Genen­tech expects TruTCR to identify T-cell receptor (TCRs) that can ef­fec­tively rec­og­nize and tar­get spe­cific neoanti­gens while Adap­tive will also use its tech­nol­ogy to iso­late op­ti­mal TCRs.  

In connection with the deal, Genen­tech will control the clin­i­cal and reg­u­la­tory process, as well as com­mer­cial­iza­tion, and Adap­tive will be re­spon­si­ble for pa­tient-spe­cific screen­ing.

The deal is ex­pected to close in the first quar­ter of 2019.