Ascent Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of biologics targeting G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), announced that it has entered into a licensing option agreement through the Novartis Option Fund. Ascent will discover and develop its Pepducin drug candidates against a specific GPCR target. The agreement includes an upfront fee and potential milestones totalling over $200 million, as well as royalties.

"Novartis is one of the industry leaders in developing and marketing a broad range of drugs that target GPCRs," said Frederick Jones, president and chief executive officer of Ascent. "Novartis' and Novartis Option Fund's substantial commitment to developing a new class of biologics utilizing our Pepducin technology provides important validation for Ascent and the impact we can make in GPCR drug discovery. The option fee will allow us to build out our Pepducin platform more quickly and completely."

Lauren Silverman, managing director of the Novartis Option Fund commented, "We believe that the Ascent Pepducin platform has the potential to unlock many previously undruggable targets for GPCR therapeutics. This exciting technology represents an entirely novel mechanism to disrupt GPCR signal transduction from the inside surface of the cell, allowing Pepducin drug candidates to be developed for a much wider range of serious illnesses than previous GPCR therapeutics."

Ascent Therapeutics is developing a new class of biologics targeting a well-validated class of cell receptors that regulate a broad range of diseases, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).