Novartis and Matchpoint Therapeutics have entered into a partnership worth $1bn to develop oral inhibitors for inflammatory diseases that have been historically difficult to treat.
The exclusive option and licence agreement will centre on the development and commercialisation of covalent inhibitors directed at a transcription factor associated with a number of inflammatory conditions.
Matchpoint will lead all research activities up to development candidate selection using its Advanced Covalent Exploration (ACE) platform, which focuses on disease-causing protein targets that are currently ‘undrugged’ or inadequately addressed by conventional approaches.
Novartis will have the option to exclusively licence the programme, in which case it would have global rights to develop and commercialise all products resulting from the collaboration.
Richard Siegel, global head of immunology research at Novartis, said: “We are excited to partner with Matchpoint to advance covalent medicines with the potential to address unmet medical needs and historically undruggable targets.”
Under the terms of the agreement, the Swiss drugmaker will pay US-based Matchpoint up to $60m in upfront payment and research funding, with Matchpoint eligible for up to $1bn in total potential payments, including option exercise fee, development and commercial milestones.
Matchpoint’s president and chief executive officer, Andre Turennem said the collaboration “highlights the potential of [Matchpoint’s] targeted approach to covalent chemistry to unlock novel mechanisms and achieve superior pharmacology”.
Turennem continued: “We are thrilled to collaborate with Novartis, not only for its leadership in immunology research, but also for its… drug development and commercialisation track record. These capabilities will ensure that our programme has the maximum impact for patients.”
The partnership is the latest in a series of deals made by Novartis this year. Last month, the company entered into a four-year alliance with ProFound Therapeutics to discover and develop new therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases.
The collaboration, worth $750m per target, combines Novartis’ capabilities in cardiovascular drug development with ProFound’s ProFoundry Platform, which uses protein detection technologies to identify and validate novel proteins and dissect their therapeutic potential.
Novartis also said in March that it would be gaining global rights to Kyorin Pharmaceutical’s pre-clinical inflammatory disease drug in a deal worth over $830m, and revealed its intended $3.1bn acquisition of Anthos Therapeutics in February.