ProFound Therapeutics has announced a four-year collaboration with Novartis to discover and develop novel therapeutics for cardiovascular disease leveraging its ProFoundry Platform.
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This collaboration aims to bring innovative solutions to a growing population of patients by joining ProFound’s unique capabilities in the identification of novel proteins from the expanded proteome as drugs and drug targets with Novartis’ exceptional cardiovascular drug development expertise enabled by their longstanding commitment to helping people with cardiovascular diseases.
The ProFoundry Platform combines multi-layered sources of biological data with advanced computational tools to uncover, investigate, and validate a rich source of proteins hidden within the expanded human proteome and elucidate novel protein drugs and drug targets from these findings.
“We are thrilled to partner with Novartis, whose leadership in cardiovascular innovation is widely recognised across the industry,” said John Lepore, M.D., CEO of ProFound Therapeutics and Flagship Pioneering CEO-Partner. “This collaboration further validates the power of our ProFoundry Platform to go beyond traditional target discovery approaches by tapping into the vast, largely unexplored biology of the expanded human proteome. Together, we have the opportunity to accelerate the discovery of entirely new targets and support the development of transformative therapies to address the growing global burden of cardiovascular disease.”
Fiona Marshall, Ph.D., president, Biomedical Research at Novartis, said: “Novartis is committed to identifying novel therapeutic targets to drive the discovery and development of innovative medicines for patients with cardiovascular disease. We are excited to collaborate with ProFound and combine our respective expertise and capabilities to explore under-researched biology, uncover new mechanisms, and translate pioneering science into life-changing treatments.”
Under the terms of the four-year collaboration agreement, ProFound will receive $25 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments with the potential transaction value from downstream milestones of $750 million per selected target, with additional potential for tiered royalties.