After the bad experience of an unfruitful deal with Johnson & Johnson, the US biotech BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Swiss pharma F. Hoffmann-La-Roche. Through the deal, Roche is gaining a licence to develop and commercialise BioCryst's Phase I purine nucleoside polyphosphorylase (PNP) inhibitor BCX-4208 for the prevention of acute transplant rejection and the treatment of autoimmune diseases, in particular psoriasis. Financially, the deal is large, particularly for a Phase I compound. It seems, however, that the value of the deal does not fairly reflect the risk that Roche is taking on by licensing such an early-stage compound; therefore, the reasons why it entered into the deal may not be what they appear on the surface.