Novartis Exits BrainTransporter Deal with BioArctic 14 Months After Signing

Novartis has terminated its collaboration with BioArctic AB, ending a partnership designed to use BioArctic’s BrainTransporter platform to develop a new treatment for neurodegenerative disorders¹ — just 14 months after the two companies signed the agreement.²

BioArctic announced the termination on November 2, 2026. The Swedish biotech said Novartis decided to discontinue the program, and was clear that the exit reflects an internal Novartis portfolio decision rather than any problem with the platform itself. “The termination is unrelated to BioArctic’s BrainTransporter technology,” the company stated.

The collaboration, inked in August 2025, had called for BioArctic to engineer a drug candidate by pairing BrainTransporter with an undisclosed Novartis proprietary antibody targeting neurodegeneration. Novartis would then evaluate the resulting data and decide whether to exercise an option to license the candidate and take over global development and commercialization. The deal carried an upfront payment of $30 million, with up to $772 million in potential milestone payments and tiered mid-single-digit royalties on global sales if a product reached the market.

BioArctic will retain the full $30 million upfront payment and will recognize the remaining unrecognized portion of that sum as revenue in 2026.

BrainTransporter is designed to shuttle biologic drugs — including antibodies — across the blood-brain barrier by exploiting the transferrin receptor, a mechanism the brain uses for active transport. BioArctic says the platform can improve brain distribution, efficacy, and safety profiles while enabling more convenient dosing. At the time the Novartis deal was announced, BioArctic CEO Gunilla Osswald called it “a versatile platform” with “huge potential to improve many different projects.”

The Novartis collaboration was one of five active BrainTransporter partnerships BioArctic currently holds. Other named partners include Bristol Myers Squibb, which signed a global license in December 2024 for $100 million upfront and up to $1.25 billion in potential milestones, and Eisai, which entered a research evaluation agreement in April 2024.

In August, Pharmaceutical Executive spoke with Norstella’s VP of thought leadership Dan Chancellor about the current status of dealmaking in the pharma and biotech industries. According to him, “Companies are killing weak assets before they get expensive rather than letting them limp into Phase III.”

Sources

1. BioArctic collaborator Novartis terminates agreement. BioArctic. November 2, 2026. https://www.bioarctic.com/en/bioarctic-collaborator-novartis-terminates-agreement/
2. BioArctic and Novartis sign an option, collaboration and license agreement using BrainTransporter™ for an upfront payment of USD 30 million plus additional potential milestones and royalties. BioArctic. August 26, 2025. Accessed November 3, 2026. https://www.bioarctic.com/en/bioarctic-and-novartis-sign-an-option-collaboration-and-license-agreement-using-braintransporter-for-an-upfront-payment-of-usd-30-million-plus-additional-potential-milestones-and-royalties/