Novartis’ continuing search for new ways to take drugs into the brain has resulted in a $1.7 billion deal with SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals.
The Swiss Big Pharma is handing the central-nervous-system-focused biotech $165 million upfront for the worldwide license to an antibody program designed to shuttle Alzheimer’s disease therapies to the brain. The two companies will initially collaborate on the early development of the program—with Novartis contributing to research funding—before the pharma takes the work forward for development and potentially onto commercialization.
Novartis is liable to pay up to $1.5 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones, as well as tiered royalties on sales should the program make it to market.
Finding ways to bypass the blood-brain barrier has been a key goal for neurodegenerative-minded companies for years. The barrier protects the inner surfaces of the blood vessels inside the brain and controls how certain chemical molecules go into and out of the brain.
Roche, which has a brain shuttle bispecific 2+1 amyloid-beta-targeting monoclonal antibody in phase 3 development, penned a shuttle-focused deal with Manifold Bio two months ago.
Novartis has also previously shown an interest in this space, inking a deal with Sironax last summer that gave the pharma the exclusive option to acquire the biotech’s blood-brain barrier crossing technology after a trial period. Neuroscience is one of Novartis’ four therapeutic areas of focus, alongside oncology, immunology and cardiovascular, renal and metabolic conditions.
“There is a pressing need for new and differentiated therapeutics to help alleviate suffering in devastating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease,” Robert Baloh, M.D., Ph.D., global head of neuroscience, biomedical research at Novartis, said in this morning’s release.
“We are happy to be collaborating with SciNeuro, an organization which has proprietary technology aiming to safely and effectively target amyloid beta and which shares our sense of urgency and commitment to this disease area,” Baloh added.
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Since its founding in 2020, SciNeuro has taken an Lp-PLA2 inhibitor called SNP318 into the clinic. The hope is that SNP318 can treat neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s by repairing damage to the blood-brain barrier and blood-retinal barrier.
SciNeuro CEO Min Li, Ph.D., said the anti-amyloid program licensed to Novartis today “represents one of SciNeuro’s key strategic R&D priorities to target neurodegenerative disease.”
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Novartis to continue its development, given their preeminent capabilities and commitment to next-generation therapies for neurodegenerative diseases,” the CEO added.
