CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom and NEW YORK, April 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artios Pharma Limited (Artios), a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company exploiting synthetic lethality to develop a broad pipeline of precision medicines for the treatment of cancer, today announced a global research collaboration with Novartis to discover and validate next generation DDR targets to enhance Novartis' Radioligand Therapies (RLT).

Under the three-year collaboration, Artios and Novartis will perform target discovery and validation, and Novartis will select up to three exclusive DDR targets, and receive worldwide rights on these targets to be utilized with its RLT?s.

Dr. Niall Martin, Chief Executive Officer at Artios Pharma, said:??This collaboration expands the reach of our discovery platform, leveraging our DDR expertise and target knowledge to enhance the potential of radioligand therapies. We are thrilled to work with Novartis, and this combined with our recent collaboration with Merck KGaA provides important validation of the power of the internal discovery capabilities at Artios. From a strategic perspective, this collaboration is an ideal fit which maximizes the application of our platform to areas beyond our current focus as we independently advance our pipeline of novel DDR candidates. We look forward to continued momentum as a clinical-stage precision medicine company, building upon our recently initiated Phase 1 study of ART0380, our potential best-in-class ATR inhibitor, with the expected entry of our first-in-class Pol Theta program into the clinic before year end.?

Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will make an up-front payment of US$20 million and provide near term research funding to support the collaboration. Artios will be eligible to receive discovery, development, regulatory and sales-based milestones, in addition to royalty payments on net sales of products commercialized by Novartis. The collaboration does not include Artios? lead programs, ART0380, which is currently in clinical development, or ART4215, a first-in-class Pol Theta inhibitor.

Novartis' RLT delivers targeted radiation to a specific subset of cancer cells, with minimal effect on surrounding healthy cells. RLT has been shown to improve overall survival and quality of life, particularly in the setting of cancers with bone metastases.

For more information, please contact:

Investor Contact: Abid Ansari, Chief Financial Officer E: Abid.Ansari@artiospharma.com

Notes to Editors

About Artios Pharma Limited Artios is a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company focused on developing first-in-class treatments for cancer. The Company is led by an experienced scientific and leadership team with proven expertise in DDR drug discovery, including the identification and development of the PARP inhibitor olaparib. It has a unique partnership with Cancer Research UK (CRUK), and collaborations with leading DNA repair researchers worldwide, such as The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and the Crick Institute, London. Artios is building a pipeline of next-generation DDR programmes to target hard to treat cancers, including Phase I/IIa clinical studies in 2021 for its ATR inhibitor ART0380 in treating DDR defective tumours, and the first-in-class Pol theta inhibitor ART4215 for mono therapy and combination treatments. In December 2020, Artios entered into a collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany to identify and develop precision oncology medicines targeting nucleases. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has the right to opt into exclusive development and commercialization of compounds on up to eight targets and Artios to receive up to US$860 million total milestones per target. It is backed by blue chip investors including: AbbVie Ventures, Andera Partners, Arix Bioscience plc, IP Group plc, Life Science Partners (LSP), M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund (NVF), Pfizer Ventures and SV Health Investors. Artios is based at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, UK, with an office in New York City, USA.?www.artiospharma.com