CombinatoRx In has entered into a strategic alliance with Novartis for the discovery of novel anti-cancer combinations. The collaboration will explore combination effects in cell lines representing a broad spectrum of cancers to provide a robust and systematic understanding of combination therapy opportunities. The alliance will also explore important differences in response by cancer type, including genotype and other mutational differences.

Each party will contribute compounds from its compound library and evaluate the anti-cancer effects by utilizing CombinatoRx's proprietary combination high throughput screening (cHTS) platform and Chalice analyzer software.

"This alliance brings together the innovative discovery approach for which Novartis is well known with the systematic exploration of combination therapy made possible by the CombinatoRx cHTS platform," said Alexis Borisy, president and CEO of CombinatoRx. "Our alliance with Novartis further supports our business strategy of leveraging the CombinatoRx drug discovery platform while retaining important product rights. The potential of our discovery platform, especially in the field of oncology, is evident in our B-Cell malignancy program in which synergy and efficacy was demonstrated in several pre-clinical models of myeloma."

Under the agreement, CombinatoRx will receive a $4 million upfront payment and funding for research support for two years. In addition, for each combination advanced to the market from the collaboration, CombinatoRx is eligible to receive up to $58 million in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones. The alliance has an initial two-year term that may be extended by Novartis for three additional one-year periods.

CombinatoRx retains the right to conduct oncology research on its own behalf as well as partner with others in the field of oncology, and will retain certain intellectual property rights which may arise from the collaboration research.

CombinatoRx, Incorporated is pioneering the new field of synergistic combination pharmaceuticals.