Novartis announced a collaboration on Wednesday with a small North Carolina biotech whose technology could help turn more of the Swiss pharma giant’s infused drugs into injections that patients can take at home.
Under the terms of the deal, Novartis will pay $20 million upfront to Morrisville-based Lindy Biosciences, which was founded in 2016 based on tech out of Duke University. The startup uses a so-called microglassification suspension technology to turn IV-delivered biologics into treatments that patients can inject with a pre-filled syringe or autoinjector.
“We use solvents to extract water from protein droplets, which gives us really excellent particle engineering control so we can make really dense, stable, spherical microparticles, and we suspend those in a vehicle for injections,” Lindy Biosciences CEO Deborah Bitterfield said in an interview with Endpoints News.
The exclusive, global licensing tie-up aims to create “more convenient subcutaneous regimens” for some Novartis drugs, a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The pharmaceutical company could deliver up to $934 million in biobucks and tiered royalties.
The companies declined to say which therapeutic areas the deal could apply to and whether it’ll include any already-approved medicines. Novartis has focused its pipeline in recent years on medicines in oncology, neuroscience, immunology, and cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases as it separated its biosimilars business Sandoz.
The Lindy pact comes a day after Endpoints reported that another startup in the space is raising a megaround. The Boston startup, named Elektrofi, is raising a $112 million Series C to turn biologics into self-delivered, at-home treatments, CEO Chase Coffman confirmed to Endpoints. Elektrofi was also founded in 2016 and has unveiled partnerships with Takeda, Leo Pharma, argenx, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.
Lindy has other ongoing collaborations with undisclosed companies, Bitterfield said. The CEO said the Novartis deal is the “first project that we’ll be taking through to the clinic with a partner.” The startup has raised a little more than $7 million to date, according to venture data firm PitchBook. Its investors include Charleston, SC-based IAG Capital Partners, an early-stage tech and life sciences investor.