No­var­tis taps DNA dam­age spe­cial­ist Ar­tios in $1.3B dis­cov­ery deal to com­ple­ment grow­ing ra­di­oli­gand port­fo­lio

With a big Phase III win for its lead ra­di­oli­gand for can­cer last month, No­var­tis is look­ing to quick­ly ramp up its pipeline for those ther­a­pies in a bid at a new class of drugs. But the Swiss drug­mak­er is hedg­ing its bets that its ra­di­oli­gands are good enough for most can­cers, and now it’s inked a dis­cov­ery pact for com­ple­men­tary drugs that could weak­en tu­mors even more.

No­var­tis will pay $20 mil­lion up­front and up to $1.3 bil­lion in biobucks for up to three DNA re­pair-tar­get­ed mol­e­cules from UK-based Ar­tios meant to “en­hance” its grow­ing pipeline of ra­di­oli­gand on­col­o­gy drugs, the part­ners said Wednes­day.

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