Novartis's $1.3 billion partnership with Artios Pharma

On April 7, according to foreign media reports, Novartis and Artios Pharma, a DNA damage response (DNA Damage Response, DDR) company, launched a global research collaboration to discover and verify next-generation DDR targets to enhance Novartis’s radioligand therapy (RLT).

Novartis will pay an advance payment of US$20 million to Artios Pharma and provide short-term research funding to support cooperation.

Artios has its own ATR inhibitor in the first phase of human trials.

The intersection between Novartis' radioligand products (including the advanced molecule 177Lu-PSMA-617 for prostate cancer) and DDR targeting inhibitors is undoubtedly obvious.

The Novartis partnership is the second major deal signed by Artios Pharma after Artios Pharma and Merck KGaA in December to develop small molecule drugs targeting DNA repair enzymes.

Radiopharmaceuticals are a class of drugs with a long history.