Artios Pharma to collaborate with Novartis on DDR cancer therapies

Oncology company Artios Pharma has signed a global research collaboration with pharma company Novartis to target and validate next generation DNA Damage Response (DDR) targets to enhance Novartis’s Radioligand Therapies (RLT). 

The three-year collaboration will see Artios and Novartis perform target discovery and validation, with Novartis selecting up to three exclusive DDR targets to be utilised with its RLT’s

Artios is focused on developing new precision medicines for treating cancers. Specifically, the company is focused on DDR as a major strategy for cancer treatment in a way which has lower side effects. Cancer cells can be driven by genomic instability and in many tumours, certain DNA repair pathways can become damaged, making the cancer cells dependent on the remaining or alternative DNA repair pathways.

Using certain DNA repair inhibitors on these alternative DNA repair pathways is thought to lead to selective cell deaths in tumours. Artios has built a platform for developing novel inhibitors of specific DNA repair enzymes that can be used alongside therapies as a way of targeting DDR-defective tumours.

Novartis’ RLT is used to deliver targeted radiation to a specific subset of cancer cells, with minimal effect on surrounding healthy cells.

Novartis’s 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. 

Novartis will make an up-front payment of $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 commercialised by Novartis.

Dr Niall Martin, chief executive officer at Artios Pharma, 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. From a strategic perspective, this collaboration is an ideal fit which maximises the application of our platform to areas beyond our current focus as we independently advance our pipeline of novel DDR candidates. We look forward to continued momentum as a clinical-stage precision medicine company, building upon our recently initiated Phase 1 study of ART0380, our potential best-in-class ATR inhibitor, with the expected entry of our first-in-class Pol Theta program into the clinic before year end.”