Novartis announced on June 11 that it will continue its collaboration with Orionis Biosciences, focusing on the advancement of molecular glue assets across several disease areas. The agreement includes a $40 million upfront payment from Novartis and potential research and development and commercial milestone payments totaling up to $1.4 billion. Orionis will also receive tiered royalties on net sales of any products developed through the partnership that reach the market.
The companies initially began working together in March 2020 under a four-year agreement, though financial terms for that deal were not disclosed. The renewed collaboration will use Orionis’ Allo-Glue platform alongside its artificial intelligence-driven discovery engine to expedite profiling of both targets and ligases, which are enzymes responsible for degrading disease-causing targets.
John Tallarico, head of discovery sciences at Novartis, said in a statement, “Orionis’ tech offers an opportunity to rapidly uncover and design molecular glue mechanisms, enabling us to expand the horizon of targetable biology for future therapies.” The companies did not specify which diseases they plan to address through this partnership.
Novartis has pursued similar collaborations in recent years. In October 2024, Novartis partnered with Monte Rosa Therapeutics on another molecular glue project by providing $150 million upfront and committing up to $2.1 billion in milestones for work on immune-mediated diseases. A second agreement followed in September 2025 between Novartis and Monte Rosa, involving up to $5.7 billion for multiple candidates discovered using Monte Rosa’s AI technology.
Other pharmaceutical companies have also increased investment in molecular glues recently. In April, Roche entered into an agreement with C4 Therapeutics involving more than $1 billion tied to degrader-antibody conjugates for cancer targets after paying $20 million upfront. Roche’s Genentech division signed a contract with Orionis last May worth up to $2 billion including milestones.
