Novartis secures US$30m+ licence option from BioArctic
Following the commercial launch of BioArctic AB’s Alzheimer’s antibody lecanemab, the Swedish company has announced a new deal: it will receive an upfront payment of US$30m, granting the Swiss company access to BioArctic’s BrainTransporter platform to transport therapeutics for neurodegeneration across the blood-brain barrier
Sweden’s BioArctic AB has entered into a licence option agreement with Novartis AG, with a potential deal value of up to US$802m, aimed at identifying the optimal platform for effectively transporting its drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases across the blood-brain barrier. The Swiss company will pay €30m upfront to BioArctic to test its BrainTransporter platform. In July, Novartis had signed a similar licence option agreement with China-headquartered Sironax Ltd, intended to test its Brain Delivery Module (BDM) platform. The upfront payment amount in that deal was not specified; however, up to US$175m was disclosed for technology access (upfront) and near-term payments.
Novartis intends to use the Stockholm-based BioArctic’s BrainTransporter platform to deliver an unspecified target molecule in the field of neurodegeneration into the brain. “Effectively delivering therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier remains one of the most important challenges in drug discovery,” said Robert Baloh, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head of Neuroscience for Novartis’ Biomedical Research Institute.
Should Novartis exercise the licence option following initial tests, BioArctic would be entitled to additional payments of up to US$772m, and post-market authorisation, to mid-single-digit royalties on future global product sales.
As part of a research collaboration, BioArctic will develop a new drug candidate that combines the BrainTransporter technology with a proprietary Novartis antibody. Currently only one publicly known preclinical antibody at Novartis fit to that description:
IMP701 (anti‑LAG‑3 antibody), originally licensed from Immutep, IMP701 is an anti‑LAG‑3 monoclonal antibody currently in preclinical development. Although not Alzheimer‑specific, LAG‑3 pathways may intersect with neuroinflammatory processes relevant to neurodegeneration.
Similar to Sironax’s BDM platform, BioArtic’s BrainTransporter technology enables the transport of various modalities — from antisense oligos, to peptides and enzymes, as well as antibody constructs — across the blood-brain barrier.
Previously, the Swedish company had developed its BrainTransporter platform — which delivers antibodies into the brain via the transferrin transporter — through research collaborations with Eisai Co., Ltd. and Bristol Myers Squibb.
Esai Pharma
