Novartis has entered into an exclusive licence agreement with Arvinas for the development and commercialisation of the biotech’s clinical-stage prostate cancer therapy, with the deal worth over $1bn.
The candidate, ARV-766, is a second-generation androgen receptor (AR) degrader that has demonstrated activity in models of wild-type AR tumours and tumours with AR mutations or amplification.
More than 52,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year, with one in eight men expected to be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime.
Arvinas uses its proprietary PROTAC Discovery Engine platform to engineer targeted protein degraders that are designed to harness the body’s own natural protein disposal system to degrade and remove disease-causing proteins.
The transaction also includes the sale of Arvinas’ preclinical AR-V7 programme, a splice variant of the AR.
Under the terms of the agreements, Novartis will be responsible for worldwide clinical development and commercialisation of ARV-766 and will have all research, development, manufacturing and commercialisation rights for AR-V7.
In exchange, Arvinas will receive an upfront payment of $150m and will be eligible to receive additional development, regulatory and commercial milestones of up to $1.0bn, as well as tiered royalties for ARV-766.
John Houston, chairperson, president and chief executive officer of Arvinas, said: “We believe the expertise and scale of Novartis will broaden the development of ARV-766 and its potential to be a first- and best-in-class treatment for patients with prostate cancer.
“This strategic transaction also further validates our innovative PROTAC protein degrader platform and its potential to deliver new treatments.”
The deal comes just two months after Novartis announced that it would be acquiring MorphoSys for €2.7bn, marking a significant boost to the drugmaker’s oncology pipeline.
The deal gives Novartis access to pelabresib (CPI-0610), an investigational therapy being evaluated in combination with Incyte’s Jakafi (ruxolitinib) as a treatment for the rare blood cancer myelofibrosis.
The acquisition also includes tulmimetostat (CPI-0209), an early-stage investigational dual inhibitor of the EZH1/EZH2 proteins currently being tested in patients with solid tumours or lymphomas.