Novartis has entered into an exclusive licence agreement with Legend Biotech for global rights to a selection of CAR-T cell therapies targeting DLL3, with the deal potentially worth over $1bn.
Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will gain exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise these cell therapies, which include an autologous CAR-T cell therapy candidate (LB2102) that Legend is taking into early-stage clinical development for extensive stage small cell lung cancer and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma.
The deal also allows Novartis to apply its T-Charge cell therapy platform to the manufacturing process of these therapies, with LB2102 set to be the company’s first application of T-Charge to a cell therapy candidate targeting solid tumours.
In exchange, Legend will receive a $100m upfront payment from Novartis and will be eligible to receive up to $1.01bn in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and tiered royalties.
“We believe LB2102 has an innovative CAR design and armour mechanism that increases its anti-tumour activity,” said Guowei Fang, chief scientific officer and head of business development at Legend Biotech. “The preclinical evidence shows that an autologous CAR-T could be a differentiated treatment option for patients with small cell lung cancer.”
Fang added that the combination of LB2102 with Novartis’ T-Charge platform “may potentially offer transformative benefits to small cell lung cancer patients”.
The Novartis/Legend agreement is just one of a series of deals that Novartis has made this year. In July, the company announced its acquisition of DTx Pharma, a preclinical stage biotech focused on developing siRNA therapies for neuroscience indications, in a transaction worth up to $1bn.
The merger included DTx’s fatty acid ligand-conjugated oligonucleotide platform as well as its lead preclinical therapy for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a slow-progressing and degenerative disease of the peripheral nervous system.
The month prior, the Swiss drugmaker also entered into an agreement to acquire Chinook Therapeutics for approximately $3.5bn, marking a notable expansion of its renal pipeline.
The deal granted Novartis access to the US biopharma’s two late-stage candidates in development for immunoglobulin A nephropathy, a rare and progressive kidney disease that mostly affects young adults.