Watch out, Roche: No­var­tis inks $1.5B deal to chase down promi­nent Parkin­son’s tar­get

No­var­tis is plop­ping down $150 mil­lion in cash to pick up an ex­per­i­men­tal Parkin­son’s drug and grab an op­tion to an­oth­er, a move that puts it on an in­creas­ing­ly pop­u­lar path in the field’s search for dis­ease-mod­i­fy­ing ther­a­pies.

Bel­gium’s UCB is its part­ner of choice, sup­ply­ing two small mol­e­cule al­pha-synu­cle­in mis­fold­ing in­hibitors in a deal that can add up to near­ly $1.5 bil­lion.

Out of the pair, UCB0599 is al­ready in Phase II tri­als, mak­ing No­var­tis con­fi­dent enough to pull the trig­ger on co-de­vel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­iza­tion, in­clud­ing to foot half of the R&D bill. The phar­ma gi­ant will make a de­ci­sion on UCB7853 once UCB wraps the on­go­ing Phase I pro­gram.

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