Novartis pens $5.2bn cardiovascular partnership with Argo

Novartis is paying $160 million upfront to activate an R&D alliance with China's Argo Biopharma covering multiple cardiovascular disease drugs, including a lipid-lowering candidate in phase 2.

Under the terms of the deal, Shanghai-based Argo – which specialises in small interfering RNA (siRNA) drugs that can switch off protein production – is also in line for potential milestone and option payments of up to $5.2 billion.

Novartis claims an option to license rights outside China to BW-00112, an ANGPTL3-targeting drug for severe hypertriglyceridaemia (sHTG) and mixed dyslipidaemia, after Argo completes a combination trial. BW-00112 is already in phase 2 in the US and China, according to the Chinese company.

Meanwhile, the agreement also covers two follow-up, discovery-stage projects for sHTG and dyslipidaemia, and an additional siRNA candidate currently being prepared for clinical testing.

It is the Swiss pharma group's third partnership with Argo, coming after a January 2024 deal, with an upfront payment of $185 million and more than $4 billion in milestones, which covered two other candidates (BW-02 and BW-05) in the cardiovascular arena.

Argo was founded in 2021 to develop drug candidates based on its RADS platform, which promises to deliver oligonucleotide-based siRNA therapies that offer improved activity, durability, and safety with dosing as infrequently as one injection per year.

Its pipeline spans dozens of drug candidates across cardiovascular, rare diseases, viral infections, metabolic diseases like obesity, and neurology.

"Long-acting siRNAs, which are designed to deeply and durably target disease-causing proteins, represent an important paradigm shift in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases," commented Shaun Coughlin, global head of cardiovascular and metabolism at Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR).

Novartis also said it may participate in Argo's next round of equity financing. Its last fundraising, a Series A that ended in 2023, raised more than $40 million.

The Swiss-headquartered group is an established player in the cardiovascular market with drugs like Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan) for heart failure – now facing generic competition in the US – and once-yearly cholesterol-lowering agent Leqvio (inclisiran).

The deal with Argo is its second in the category in the last few months, coming after a target-discovery partnership with ProFound Therapeutics that included an upfront payment of $25 million and up to $750 million for each programme taken forward.

"This new collaboration further supports the innovation engine Argo has built to deliver best-in-class siRNA therapeutics while building a top-tier clinical development team across multiple geographies," said the company's chief executive and chairman, Dr Dongxu Shu.