BioArctic AB said Nov. 2 that Novartis Pharma AG had notified it of the agreement’s termination, ending a potential route to as much as US$772 million in milestone payments for the Swedish biotech.
BioArctic will retain the US$30 million upfront payment and recognize the portion still unrecognized as revenue in 2026, the company said. It did not disclose how much of the payment remains unrecognized.
The milestone payments depended on Novartis exercising an option to license a candidate generated through the collaboration. The agreement also made BioArctic eligible for royalties on worldwide sales if a resulting product reached the market, at rates tiered in the mid-single-digit range. Novartis could take a candidate forward after considering data from the initial collaboration, and would oversee its subsequent development and commercialization worldwide if it exercised the option.
The work paired BioArctic’s BrainTransporter technology with an undisclosed Novartis antibody to explore a potential treatment for neurodegeneration. BioArctic describes BrainTransporter as helping biological drugs pass into the brain using the transferrin receptor. The company said Novartis’ decision to discontinue the program was unrelated to the technology, but gave no specific reason for the decision. BioArctic said it has entered into five collaboration agreements involving BrainTransporter.
