Novartis to Acquire Sironax Brain-Drug Delivery Technology in $125 Million Deal

Novartis is expanding its ability to deliver medicines into the brain by acquiring a platform from Sironax designed to help therapies cross the blood-brain barrier. The move comes as the Swiss drugmaker faces increased scrutiny over its neuroscience pipeline after a series of clinical setbacks.

Novartis has been evaluating Sironax’s technology for more than a year. Last summer, the company secured an exclusive option to acquire the platform, giving it time to assess the technology before deciding whether to proceed. Sironax announced Wednesday that Novartis will exercise that option in a deal valued at $125 million.

Sironax was co-founded in 2017 by Xiaodong Wang, who earlier co-founded BeiGene, now known as BeOne Medicines. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Sironax describes its platform as “brain delivery modules” engineered to carry treatments across the blood-brain barrier. The technology is intended for use with monoclonal antibodies, peptides, proteins, gene therapies and other large-molecule drugs. Sironax’s research focuses on neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation, including conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis.

“In diseases like ALS, MS, where you need [central nervous system] access, you’re able to do that, so that’s very differentiating as well for us,” Sironax CEO Shefali Agarwal said in an interview earlier this year.

Under the agreement, Sironax will retain the right to develop, manufacture and commercialize selected assets it created using the platform. The biotech currently has three drugs in Phase 1b/2 testing: SIR2501, a SARM1 inhibitor for ALS and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy; SIR4156, a NAMPT activator for metabolic dysfunction; and SIR9900, a brain-penetrating RIPK1 inhibitor for inflammatory and immunological diseases.

Neuroscience is currently the smallest of Novartis’s four core therapeutic areas by revenue, but the company has been working to strengthen its position in the field. Its pipeline includes programs targeting multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and several neuromuscular disorders, representing a range of drug modalities that could potentially benefit from Sironax’s delivery technology.

The acquisition comes as Novartis seeks to rebound from disappointing trial results. Last week, the company said delpacibart etedesiran, an antibody-oligonucleotide conjugate, failed a Phase 3 study in myotonic dystrophy type 1. The therapy was one of three drug candidates Novartis gained through its $12 billion acquisition of Avidity Biosciences last year. Last month, Novartis also said it would stop development of the antibody lifonebart, formerly known as VHB937B1, after the drug failed a Phase 2 trial in ALS.

Other parts of the Novartis pipeline have also encountered difficulties. The company has paused clinical trials of an experimental cell therapy for autoimmune diseases and neurological disorders after being notified in late August of life-threatening immune reactions in three patients, all of whom later died. Ahead of the Labor Day weekend, Novartis also reported that pelacarsen, an antisense oligonucleotide, failed a Phase 3 cardiovascular disease trial.

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