• Novartis to leverage Artios’ discovery platform to identify DDR targets for use with Novartis’ proprietary radioligand therapies.
• Artios to receive US$20 million up-front payment in addition to near term research funding to support the collaboration.
• Artios eligible to receive up to $1.3 billion in discovery, development, regulatory and sales-based milestones in addition to royalty payments.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, April 7, 2021 – LSP, one of Europe’s leading life sciences and health care investors, today announced that its portfolio company Artios Pharma Limited (Artios) entered into a collaboration with Novartis to create new cancer therapies. Artios is a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company exploiting synthetic lethality to develop a broad pipeline of precision medicines for the treatment of cancer. The global research collaboration with Novartis has the purpose to discover and validate next generation DDR targets to enhance Novartis’ Radioligand Therapies (RLT). 

Under the three-year collaboration, Artios and Novartis will perform target discovery and validation, and Novartis will select up to three exclusive DDR targets, and receive worldwide rights on these targets to be utilized with its RLT’s.

Niall Martin, Chief Executive Officer at Artios, said: “This collaboration expands the reach of our discovery platform, leveraging our DDR expertise and target knowledge to enhance the potential of radioligand therapies. We are thrilled to work with Novartis, and this combined with our recent collaboration with Merck KGaA, provides important validation of the power of the internal discovery capabilities at Artios.”

René Kuijten, Managing Partner at LSP and board member at Artios commented: “The collaboration with Novartis is the result of the hard and outstanding work of the Artios team who have succeeded in creating the world’s leading DNA repair drug discovery and biology platform. We are very excited to have Novartis as a partner in this endeavour with the common goal to create better medicine solutions for cancer patients.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will make an up-front payment of US$20 million and provide near term research funding to support the collaboration. Artios will be eligible to receive discovery, development, regulatory and sales-based milestones, in addition to royalty payments on net sales of products commercialized by Novartis. The collaboration does not include Artios’ lead programs, ART0380, which is currently in clinical development, or ART4215, a first-in-class Pol Theta inhibitor.

Novartis’ RLT delivers targeted radiation to a specific subset of cancer cells, with minimal effect on surrounding healthy cells. RLT has been shown to improve overall survival and quality of life, particularly in the setting of cancers with bone metastases.  

 
About Artios Pharma Limited

Artios is a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company focused on developing first-in-class treatments for cancer.  The Company is led by an experienced scientific and leadership team with proven expertise in DDR drug discovery, including the identification and development of the PARP inhibitor olaparib. Artios is building a pipeline of next-generation DDR programmes to target hard to treat cancers. In December 2020, Artios entered into a collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany to identify and develop precision oncology medicines targeting nucleases. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has the right to opt into exclusive development and commercialization of compounds on up to eight targets and Artios to receive up to US$860 million total milestones per target. It is backed by blue chip investors including: AbbVie Ventures, Andera Partners, Arix Bioscience plc, IP Group plc, LSP, M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund (NVF), Pfizer Ventures and SV Health Investors. Artios is based at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, UK, with an office in New York City, USA. artiospharma.com

 
About LSP

LSP is one of the largest European investment firms providing financing for life sciences and health care companies. LSP’s management has raised over €2 billion ($2.5 billion) and supported the growth of 300 companies since it started to invest in 1988, including signature deals such as argenx, Crucell and Neuravi. With offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP currently has the possibility to invest through five strategies, each having a distinctive investment scope and a dedicated team: LSP 6 invests in private early- to late-stage drug development and medical technology companies; LSP HEF 2 focuses on private late-stage medical technology companies; the LSP Dementia Fund invests in companies targeting neurodegenerative diseases; LSP Public targets public healthcare companies; and EBAC is the first healthcare SPAC to exclusively focus on European biotech. LSP is an active contributor to the global life sciences industry and the European life science eco-system by assuming for-profit and not-for-profit roles as initiators, founders and board members in various private and public bodies and organizations, for example being founder and board member of the Oncode Institute. For more information: lspvc.com.