Novartis has agreed to a collaboration with Monte Rosa Therapeutics to develop novel degraders to treat immune-mediated diseases.
The two companies will be using this collaboration to speed up development of degraders for targets that have proved difficult to drug. As part of the deal, Novartis will receive an exclusive license to an undisclosed discovery target as well as options to license two preclinical immunology programs.
Upfront, Monte Rosa will receive $120 million, plus maintenance payments. However, the total value of the deal could be as much as $5.7 billion due to the eligibility for option exercise payments as well as development, regulatory, and sales milestones and tiered royalties on global net sales.
This is the second licensing deal Novartis has signed with Monte Rosa — the first, signed in October 2024, was an exclusive agreement for Monte Rosa’s VAV1 degraders including, MRT-6160, an orally bioavailable investigational molecular glue degrader.
Monte Rosa is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that develops highly-selective molecular glue degrader (MGD)-based drugs. It intends to use the funds from the deal with Novartis to accelerate its preclinical and clinical-stage immunology and inflammation pipeline.