Ratio Therapeutics has inked an exclusive worldwide agreement potentially worth $745M with Novartis Pharma AG. The collaboration leverages Ratio’s radioligand therapy discovery and development expertise as well as its technology platforms for the development of a Somatostatin Receptor 2 (SSTR2) radiotherapeutic candidate for cancer.
“The team at Ratio is honored and excited to partner with Novartis on the development of a next-generation SSTR2-targeting therapeutic,” said Jack Hoppin, PhD, CEO of Ratio. “Together, we aim to develop a best-in-class therapy in the fight against SSTR2-expressing tumors.”
SSTR2 is one of the receptors for the peptide hormone somatostatin and is highly expressed on neuroendocrine cells and others, where it is involved in neurotransmission, hormone secretion, and cell proliferation.
The global radioligand therapy market was valued at $8.37B in 2024 and is projected to grow to $17.09B by 2033, according to Straits Research. They write that this market “is driven by the increasing prevalence of hard-to-treat cancers, such as neuroendocrine tumors and metastatic prostate cancer, where conventional therapies have limited success.”
Novartis is already a player in this field with Pluvicto, which is approved for certain types of advanced prostate cancer.
“Radioligand therapies [RLT’s] hold transformative potential for certain forms of cancer, and Novartis is committed to maximizing their impact by continually improving the benefit for patients,” said Fiona Marshall, president of biomedical research at Novartis. “We are delighted to collaborate with Ratio to advance this RLT candidate and work together to bring forward additional therapeutic options for patients with difficult-to-treat cancer.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Ratio will receive combined upfront and potential milestone payments up to $745M, and is eligible to receive tiered royalty payments. Ratio will collaborate with Novartis to drive preclinical activities to research and select an SSTR2-targeting development candidate. Novartis will assume responsibility for all remaining development, manufacturing, and commercialization activities.
Ratio’s proprietary R&D platforms, Trillium and Macropa, were designed to develop radiopharmaceuticals, for therapy and imaging, with pharmacokinetic modulation, thereby improving drug availability and delivery to the tumor. The company is also currently advancing the development of its first FAP-targeted radiotherapeutic with plans to enter clinical trials next year. The drug is currently targeting soft tissue sarcoma.
Ratio’s Trillium technology is a proprietary platform that incorporates a tunable, structural motif enabling compounds to reversibly bind to albumin, thereby “modulating their pharmacokinetics and improving drug availability, tumor delivery, and tumor loading, while simultaneously reducing the side effects commonly observed with other radiotherapies,” the company says.
Macropa incorporates a proprietary chelator that is used to attach the alpha emitting radionuclide actinium-225 to Trillium and other compounds. Its unique chemistry, the company says, “enables ease of manufacture and improves in vivo stability of the resulting compound.” Macropa can be used with a wide variety of compounds, from small molecules to peptides and even large polypeptides, such as antibodies.
