Novartis is making a major bet on Chinese biotech Abogen Biosciences, agreeing to pay $575 million upfront for access to its RNA technology. The deal could ultimately be worth nearly $8 billion, according to BioPharma Dive, with most of that tied to future milestones.
As part of the collaboration, Novartis will be able to use Abogen's RNA platform and holds an option to license ABO-2203, Abogen's lead candidate. The agreement highlights how large pharmaceutical companies are increasingly looking to Chinese biotechs for cutting-edge platform technology.
The source report does not specify what disease ABO-2203 targets or the exact milestone payments, so those details remain undisclosed. This is a single-source report, so there are no differing accounts to compare.