Novartis ends $800M neuroscience partnership with BioArctic after 14 months
Novartis signed an $800 million neuroscience partnership with BioArctic in August 2025, providing $30 million upfront to merge BioArctic’s BrainTransporter technology with a Novartis antibody targeting an undisclosed neurodegeneration indication.
The deal promised up to $772 million in milestone payments and mid-single-digit royalties on any resulting medicines. BioArctic’s platform leverages the transferrin receptor to improve delivery of biologics across the blood-brain barrier, and the company previously co-developed the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi with Eisai.
In November 2026, Novartis announced it is discontinuing the program, saying the decision is unrelated to the BrainTransporter technology. BioArctic confirmed the termination, leaving the biotech without the anticipated funding.
This writeup was produced by pharmadog from original reporting by Fierce Biotech.
Original headline: “BioArctic left out in the cold as Novartis walks away from $800M neuro collab”
read at Fierce Biotech ↗
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