Light Horse emerges along with Novartis collaboration

USA-based Light Horse Therapeutics has been established as a new small molecule therapeutics developer, with a $62 million Series A financing led by founding investor Versant Ventures and partnered with Novartis (NOVN: VX) to identify and develop potentially advanced therapeutics.

Under the multi-target collaboration with Novartis, Light Horse will receive a $25 million upfront payment. The company is also eligible for $1 billion in further research, development and sales milestones, in addition to royalties on licensed therapeutics. Further details are undisclosed.

“Light Horse’s high-caliber team has built a cutting-edge discovery platform that rapidly enables the exploration of core biological areas of interest, the identification of novel targets and the functionalization of high-value targets,” said John Tallarico, head of discovery sciences at Novartis. “This collaboration has the potential to create first-in-class therapeutics capable of driving meaningful benefit for patients,” he noted