Under the terms of the agreement Novartis will fund additional research at Astex. Astex and Novartis originally entered into a research collaboration and licensing agreement in December 2005. This collaboration could potentially be worth up to $520 million if all fees, equity payments, option payments and milestones are met.
Harren Jhoti, CEO of Astex, said: “We are pleased that Novartis has chosen to dedicate further resources to what has been a very exciting programme of collaborative research.”