Arix Bioscience PLC (LON:ARIX) said its portfolio company Artios Pharma Limited, in which it owns a 12.4% stake, has agreed a global research collaboration with Swiss pharma giant Novartis to create a new generation of DNA Damage Response (DDR) cancer therapies.
Under the three-year deal, the company said Artois and Novartis will perform target discovery and validation while the latter will select up to three exclusive DDR targets and receive worldwide rights for these to be utilised with its Radioligand Therapies (RLTs).
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Novartis will make an upfront payment of US$20mln to Artois and provide near term research funding to support the collaboration.
Artois will also be eligible to receive up to US$1.3bn in discovery, development, regulatory and sales-based milestones, in addition to royalty payments on net sales of products commercialised by Novartis.
"This collaboration will exploit Artios' innovative discovery technology to build a pipeline of RLT combination therapies that can change the current paradigm in cancer treatment. Following the recent multi-billion dollar deal with Merck, the collaboration with Novartis further strengthens Artios' leadership in the field of DDR. We are proud to continue supporting Artios as it becomes a clinical-stage precision medicine company", Arix executive chairman Naseem Amin said in a statement.