Monday, January 12, 2009

Forma Therapeutics in $200M licensing deal with Novartis

By Marc Songini

Cambridge-based oncology treatment startup Forma Therapeutics Inc. has inked a deal with the Novartis Option Fund worth as much as $200 million.

The company announced it had signed a license and option agreement with Novartis that calls on Forma to use its transformative biology and chemistry platform to develop inhibitors for an oncological protein-protein interaction target. Between the upfront fee and potential milestones, Forma could receive more than $200 million, not including the potential royalties.

Forma develops its drugs using an integrated transformative biology and chemistry-based approach. Forma relies on using a cell-based screening platform to permit the screening of discrete targets in cells, along with quantitative genome-proteome-wide profiling and target identification, officials say. It also uses structure-guided drug discovery combined with an integrated chemistry platform, which incorporates diversity-orientated synthesis. Forma claims this approach works on challenging targets to allow the rapid optimization of lead therapeutic candidates.

Earlier this month, Forma announced its formal launch and that it had raised $25 million in venture capital for initial equity and non-dilutive funding. The cash came from both the Novartis Option Fund and other sources.

The Novartis Option Fund is a $200 million fund that is part of Novartis Venture Funds, based in Cambridge and Switzerland. Novartis Venture Funds was established in 1996 and has more than $550 million in committed capital. The Novartis Option Fund looks to seed innovative companies through financing their initial investments.