Artios Pharma Announces $1.32B Collaboration with Novartis to Enhance Radioligand Therapies Through Next-Gen DDR Targets

On April 7, Artios Pharma, a company focused on DNA Damage Response (DDR), announced a global research collaboration with Novartis to discover and validate next-generation DDR targets, aiming to enhance Novartis’s radioligand therapy (RLT).

Under the three-year collaboration, Artios Pharma and Novartis will conduct target discovery and validation, with Novartis having the option to select up to three exclusive DDR targets and obtain global rights to these targets for use in combination with its radioligand therapies (RLTs). Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will pay a $20 million upfront payment and provide short-term research funding to support the collaboration. Artios Pharma will be eligible to receive $1.3 billion in discovery, development, regulatory, and sales-based milestones, as well as royalties. This collaboration excludes Artios Pharma’s lead programs currently in clinical development, ART0380 and ART4215.

Artios Pharma, based in Cambridge, UK, was founded in May 2016 and is primarily dedicated to the development of next-generation targeted cancer therapies focusing on DNA damage response (DDR). The company is building a next-generation DDR portfolio targeting hard-to-treat cancers, including the Phase 1/2a clinical trial of ART0380, an ATR inhibitor for DDR-deficient tumors initiated in 2021, and ART4215, a potential first-in-class Pol Theta inhibitor for monotherapy or combination therapy. In December 2020, Artios Pharma entered into a collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Germany, to identify and develop precision oncology drugs targeting nucleases. Under the agreement, Merck KGaA holds the option to exclusively develop and commercialize compounds for up to eight targets, with Artios Pharma eligible to receive total milestone payments of up to $860 million per target.