Angelini signs exclusive $550M deal with Sovargen

Privately-held Italian drugmaker Angelini Pharma and Sovargen, a South-Korean biotechnology company, announced an exclusive global option agreement for the development and commercialization of Sovargen’s innovative brain health asset SVG105.

Under the terms of the agreement, Angelini and Sovargen will collaboratively lead the pre-clinical development efforts for SVG105 and, following an initial option period, Angelini Pharma will have the right to advance the compound into clinical development and commercialization outside of the Republic of Korea, China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. SVG105 is a potentially first-in-class anti-sense oligonucleotide technology to target mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) pathways. mTOR is a genetically validated target for a number of brain health disorders, including drug-resistant childhood epilepsy.

Sovargen will receive an upfront payment and will also be eligible to receive additional payments upon pre-defined development and commercial milestones of up to around $550 million, as well as tiered royalties on post-approval net sales.