Novartis Pharma and SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals have agreed a worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement to advance SciNeuro’s novel amyloid beta targeted antibody programme for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.   

The programme has identified de novo antibody candidates that incorporate SciNeuro’s proprietary blood brain barrier shuttle technology and offer potential differentiation from existing amyloid beta targeted agents. 

SciNeuro and Novartis will collaborate during early development. Novartis will lead all subsequent product development and commercialisation on a worldwide basis. 

“The anti-amyloid programme represents one of SciNeuro’s key strategic R&D priorities to target neurodegenerative disease. We are thrilled to collaborate with Novartis to continue its development, given their preeminent capabilities and commitment to next generation therapies for neurodegenerative diseases,” said Min Li, Founder and CEO of SciNeuro. “This collaboration delivers an optimal synergy, combining our expertise in disease biology and early development with Novartis’ global leadership in clinical development and commercialisation.” 

Under the terms of the agreement, SciNeuro will receive an upfront payment of $165 million. In addition, SciNeuro is eligible to receive research funding, and potentially up to $1.5 billion in development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, as well as tiered royalties. 

“There is a pressing need for new and differentiated therapeutics to help alleviate suffering in devastating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease,” said Robert Baloh, Global Head of Neuroscience, Biomedical Research at Novartis. “We are happy to be collaborating with SciNeuro, an organisation which has proprietary technology aiming to safely and effectively target amyloid beta and which shares our sense of urgency and commitment to this disease area.”