How many partners does Novartis have?
Novartis lists 67 current alliances on its website.
How Novartis forms alliances
Novartis’s Pharmaceuticals Division and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research form alliances with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and with academic institutions in order to develop new products, acquire platform technologies and access new markets.
Novartis also has a venture capital arm, set up in January 2007, known as Novartis Option Fund. While the Fund is a separate organisation from the pharmaceutical company one of its’ objectives is tohelp Novartis purchase options to certain uses of the Fund’s portfolio companies’ technologies. The Fund searches for opportunities to invest in biotech firms at their earliest stage of development. Companies included in the Fund’s portfolio include: Aileron Therapeutics,Akebia Therapeutics, Alios Biopharma, Ascent Therapeutics, BioCure, BioRelix, Catalyst Biosciences, Cellerix, Cequent Pharmaceuticals, Covagen, Covalys Biosciences, Cylene Pharmaceuticals, Destiny Pharma, Diagnoplex Biosciences, EraGen Biosciences, ESBATech, Evolva, EyeSense, FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Forma Therapeutics, Genedata, GlycoMimetics, Heptares Therapeutics, Immune Targeting System, Intellikine, Intradigm, Kalypsys, LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals, Locus Pharmaceuticals, Merlion Pharmaceuticals, MicroCHIPS, Nabriva Therapeutics, NanoPowers, Neomics, NeoVacs, Nereus Pharmaceuticals, NovImmune, Okairos, Omeros, Opsona, Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Phenomix, Polyphor, Portaero, Procertus BioPharma, Proteostasis Therapeutics, PTC Therapeutics, S*Bio, Sirtris, Sonitus Medical, Symetis, SynphaBase, Tepha, The Genetics Company, Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Trellis Bioscience, Viron Therapeutics and ZymeQuest.
Novartis’s partners
Novartis’s partners include the following:
3M, Abbott, Ablynx, Ajinomoto, Alnylam, AlphaVax, Anadys, Antisoma, Applied Pharma Research, Arrow, Astellas, Astex, Aurigene, Avalon, Avanir, Bayer-Schering, Boston Scientific, Biotec Thailand, Biozentrum Basel, Broad Institute, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Bruin Basel, Caliper Life Sciences, Celgene, Cell Therapeutics Inc, Cubist, Cytopia, Cytos, Dana-Farber Institute, Eisai, Elan, Emisphere, Epistem, Evotec, Friedrich Miecher Institute, Genelabs, Genentech, Human Genome Sciences, Idenix, Idera, Intercell, Jubilant, KaloBios, Kyorin, Kunming Institute Botony, Lohmann, Lonza, MGH, Mediolanum, MicroDose, MIP, MIT, Mitsubishi, MorphoSys, NexMed, Nordic Bioscience, Noven, Ono, Orion, Pharmachemie, Portola Pharmaceuticals, Procter & Gamble, QLT, Schering-Plough, Scripps Research Institute, Sebo, Senju, Servier, Shanghai Institute Materia Medica, Sosei, Syngene, Synosia, Unigene, Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Vectura, Versicor, Vernalis, Wuxi, Xenogen, Xenon, Xoma
What collaborations has Novartis entered into over the past few years?
The following list indicates some of the alliances Novartis has signed over the past few years:
- In October 2009 Novartis Pharma AG has entered into an agreement with Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc for exclusive US and Canadian commercialisation rights to Fanapt(TM) (iloperidone), a new medicine approved by the US FDA for the acute treatment of adults with schizophrenia. Novartis plans to launch Fanapt in the US in early 2010. Under the agreement Novartis has exclusive rights to the oral formulation of the medicine and exclusive rights to develop and commercialise a long-acting injectable formulation of the medicine. Vanda completed Phase III clinical trials in 2006 and gained US regulatory approval for this medicine in May 2009. In accordance with the agreement Novartis made an upfront payment to Vanda of US$ 200 million and is eligible to make additional development and commercial milestone payments and payments for sales royalties. Vanda retains rights to develop and commercialise Fanapt outside the territory of US and Canada, but Novartis has the option to enter into discussions with Vanda to co-commercialize Fanapt or receive sales royalties outside this territory.
- In October 2009 Novartis entered an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc for Paratek’s lead drug candidate PTK 0796, an antibiotic a potential treatment of life threatening infections such as complicated skin and skin structure infections and moderate to severe community acquired bacterial pneumonia. The drug candidate is in Phase 3 clinical trials. Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis and Paratek are to share responsibility and costs for worldwide development of PTK 0796, while Novartis has the exclusive right to commercialize PTK 0796 on a worldwide basis. Overall Paratek is eligible to receive up to $485 million in up-front and milestone payments as well as royalty payments on net sales of PTK 0796 around the world.
- In August 2009 Nuevolution A/S has entered into a new drug discovery collaboration with Novartis whereby Nuevolution would apply its proprietary Chemetics® drug discovery technology to identify novel small molecule leads against drug targets of interest to Novartis. Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis provided Nuevolution with an upfront payment and is to provide research funding and milestone payments as candidate molecules progress through preclinical and clinical development and onto the market. In addition, Nuevolution is eligible to receive royalties on the commercial sales of approved products. Further financial details were not disclosed.
- In May 2009 Novartis gained exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialise QMF149, a fixed-combination of its investigational QAB149 (indacaterol) with Schering-Plough Corporation’s inhaled corticosteroid mometasone. This is an extension of the two companies’ collaboration started in 2002 to develop fixed-dose combination respiratory therapies. Under the new agreement while Novartis assumes exclusive worldwide rights and takes on the costs to develop and commercialise QMF149, Schering-Plough assumes exclusive rights and costs to develop and commercialise a fixed-combination of mometasone plus the Novartis product Foradil (formoterol). Under the agreement there will be a royalty sharing arrangement based on sales and Novartis will recognise sales worldwide for QMF149 upon commercialisation.
- In March 2009 Novartis entered a two-year research and development collaboration with Epistem, an epithelial stem cell vendor, to identify drugs and drug targets across a range of undisclosed disease areas. Under the agreement Epistem received a $4 million upfront cash payment and research funding to study the stem cell shop’s drug targets. Novartis gained an option to exclusively license promising targets for development in exchange for undisclosed license fees, milestone payments, and royalties. Epistem is also eligible to receive up to US$45 million in milestone payments for each drug developed from those targets and undisclosed tiered royalties on worldwide sales of any commercialised targets.
- In February 2009 Novartis signed an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc to develop and commercialise elinogrel, Portola’s novel, proprietary intravenous and oral P2Y12 ADP receptor antagonist currently in Phase 2 clinical development as an anti-clotting medicine to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Under terms of the agreement, Novartis made an upfront cash payment to Portola of US$75 million and will pay additional development, regulatory and commercialisation milestone payments totaling up to $500 million. Portola is also eligible to receive royalties on worldwide net sales of elinogrel. In addition, Portola has an option to co-promote elinogrel in the United States limited to hospitals and specialty markets. Novartis is to fund all future Phase 3 clinical trials of elinogrel and share costs of ongoing and planned Phase 2 trials. The agreement also provides Portola with an option to co-fund Phase 3 clinical trials and other development activities in return for additional royalties.
- In January 2009 Novartis started a collaboration with AlphaVax, an early-stage vaccine company based in North Carolina, to develop the first commercial vaccine for cytomegalovirus, a herpes virus. Novartis licensed the vaccine for $20 million upfront after AlphaVax announced successful phase I clinical trial results. AlphaVax is eligible for milestones and royalties under the agreement, and Novartis reserves the option to make an equity investment of 4 million shares following phase II clinical trials.
- In July 2008 Novartis entered into a strategic partnership with Lonza, a Swiss pharmaceuticals manufacturing company, to accelerate growth of its biologic pharmaceuticals pipeline.
- In 2008 Novartis received an exclusive license to AlphaVax’ investigational cytomegalovirus vaccine for prevention of disease in newborns. The vaccine is completing Phase I development.
- In December 2007-MorphoSys AG and Novartis began a strategic alliance for the discovery and development of biopharmaceuticals. The alliance includes rights to co-detail co-developed products in specific territories through creation of MorphoSys’s own sales force. In addition to programmes pursued jointly, Novartis is internalising MorphoSys’s leading human antibody technology, HuCAL, at its research sites. The collaboration has a term of 10 years. Novartis has the option to prolong the collaboration for a further two years or to conclude the alliance after 7 years in certain limited circumstances. Over the lifetime of the agreement, the parties will engage in approximately double the annual number of therapeutic antibody discovery programmes as compared to the previous alliance, encompassing a wide range of diseases. MorphoSys also has options to participate in certain development activities in various programmes, with part of the early stage costs being funded by Novartis. Under the co-development options, MorphoSys may elect to participate in these projects through cost and profit sharing with financial participation reflecting its level of investment in the respective programmes. Total payments under the agreement could potentially exceed US$1 billion. The two companies had started an earlier collaboration in 2004.
- In September 2007 Novartis entered into a strategic alliance with Intercell AG, an Austrian biotechnology vaccines company, granting Novartis access to more than 10 Intercell projects in pre-clinical and early-stage development. Novartis paid an upfront payment paid $383 million which included an equity investment for the agreement. The agreement includes IC43 for prevention of hospital-acquired pseudomonas infections and IC47 for prevention of pneumonia infections. Novartis is responsibile for phase three development, manufacturing and commercialisation of any projects chosen after phase two trials. Novartis also secured opt-in rights to all future vaccine candidates discovered by Intercell.
- Since December 2005 Novartis and Ablynx have been developing nanobodies. Novartis has exclusive rights to develop and market the nanobody products that come out of the collaboration. In return, Ablynx receives licence fees and funding for research and development, and would be eligible for milestone payments and royalties once the products reach the market.
- In February 2004, Novartis Pharma AG, Genentech Inc, and Tanox Inc started a three-party collaboration to govern the development and commercialization of certain anti-IgE antibodies including Xolair and TNX-901. Under this agreement, all three parties co-developed Xolair in the US. In August 2007 Genentech acquired Tanox Inc and took over its rights and obligations. The Novartis shares held in Tanox were sold to Genentech. Novartis and Genentech are co-promoting Xolair in the US where Genentech records all sales. Novartis markets Xolair and records all sales and related costs in Europe as well as co-promotion costs in the US. Genentech and Novartis share the resulting profits from sales in the US, Europe and some East Asia countries, according to agreed profit-sharing percentages.
