Sironax Ltd.

WALTHAM, MA, USA I July 9, 2025 I Sironax, a clinical-stage biotech company dedicated to the discovery and development of transformational therapies for age-related diseases, today announced a strategic agreement with Novartis under which Sironax will grant Novartis an exclusive option to acquire its proprietary Brain Delivery Module (BDM) platform, a differentiated blood-brain-barrier (BBB) crossing technology designed to enhance the brain delivery of therapeutics of various modalities. Sironax retains the right to continue developing selected therapeutic assets using the platform. “This partnership combines Novartis’s global expertise in neuroscience with Sironax’s high-quality innovation, maximizing the potential impact of our brain delivery platform,” said Dr. Shefali Agarwal, President and CEO of Sironax. “At the same time, we will continue to explore our targets of interest with the platform and deliver brain-penetrant therapeutics. This strategic alignment empowers Sironax to accelerate its global expansion and clinical development, reinforcing our commitment to redefining what’s possible for patients living with serious neurological conditions.” “Effectively delivering therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier remains one of the most important challenges in drug discovery,” said Robert Baloh, Global Head of Neuroscience, Biomedical Research at Novartis. “We’re excited to enter into this agreement with Sironax to fully explore the promise of the BDM platform, leveraging our deep expertise and capabilities in neuroscience to bring forward next-generation therapies for patients in need.” Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will evaluate the BDM platform within an option period. Upon option exercise, Novartis will acquire full global rights to the BDM platform. Sironax is eligible to receive up to $175 million in upfront and near-term payments. About Sironax Sironax is a clinical-stage biotech company focused on the discovery and development of transformational therapies that address the root causes of age-related diseases. The company tackles aging issue by targeting three core drivers: dysregulated cell death, uncontrolled inflammation, and disrupted energy homeostasis. To date, Sironax’s breakthrough pipeline contains multiple first-in-class and/or potentially best-in-class programs at clinical stage. For more information, please visit our website https://www.sironax.com SOURCE: Sironax

Drug developers have been chasing a technology that boosts delivery across the blood-brain barrier for years. \n Novartis has inked a deal with China-based biotech Sironax that gives the pharma the exclusive option to acquire the biotech’s blood-brain barrier crossing technology after a trial period.If Novartis decides to buy the platform, the Swiss pharma will have full global rights to the Sironax science, giving the biotech the chance to make up to $175 million in upfront and near-term payments, according to a July 9 release.Under the deal terms, the biotech will be able to keep developing certain unnamed pipeline programs that use the brain delivery module platform, which is designed to improve drug delivery to the brain across several modalities.Currently, the biotech’s most advanced assets are two RIPK1 inhibitors, dubbed SIR9900 and SIR2446, in neurodegenerative diseases and immune/inflammatory diseases, respectively. The candidates are both in phase 1a testing, according to Sironax’s website.BeiGene co-founder Xiaodong Wang helped launch the venture back in 2018, leading the charge to develop treatments for age-related diseases. In 2022, Sironax raised $200 million in series B money, with investor participation from F-Prime Capital and ARCH Ventures, among others.The biotech, which has locations in both the U.S. and China, has built its strategy around three key drivers of aging: dysregulated cell death, uncontrolled inflammation and disrupted energy homeostasis.  Drug developers have been chasing a technology that boosts delivery across the blood-brain barrier for years. The barrier—also known as BBB—protects the inner surfaces of the blood vessels inside the brain and controls how certain chemical molecules go into and out of the brain.This can make it challenging to deliver therapeutics across the barrier. Biopharmas have tried for decades to crack the code to successfully penetrate the BBB for CNS diseases.“Effectively delivering therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier remains one of the most important challenges in drug discovery,\" Robert Baloh, M.D., Ph.D., global head of neuroscience for Novartis’ Biomedical Research Institute, said in the release. \"We\'re excited to enter into this agreement with Sironax to fully explore the promise of the BDM platform, leveraging our deep expertise and capabilities in neuroscience to bring forward next-generation therapies for patients in need.\"Neuroscience is one of Novartis’ four therapeutic areas of focus, alongside oncology, immunology and cardiovascular, renal and metabolic conditions.

Wednesday saw a spate of deals, headlined by Novartis' option agreement for Sironax's Brain Delivery Module (BDM) platform. The technology is designed to enable therapeutics — of varying modalities, including biologics — to cross the blood-brain barrier. Sironax retained the right to continue developing certain programmes with its platform. Following an option period during which Novartis will evaluate the BDM platform, the drugmaker can exercise its option to acquire full global rights to the technology. Sironax is eligible for up to $175 million in total between upfront and near-term payments. "Effectively delivering therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier remains one of the most important challenges in drug discovery," said Robert Baloh, global head of neuroscience, biomedical research at Novartis. "We're excited to enter into this agreement with Sironax to fully explore the promise of the BDM platform, leveraging our deep expertise and capabilities in neuroscience to bring forward next-generation therapies for patients in need."Customising AI for cancerRevolution Medicines has tapped Iambic Therapeutics and its AI platform to discover new oncology candidates.  Iambic will use Revolution's structures and molecular libraries to train custom-built versions of NeuralPLexer, the AI firm's protein-ligand structure prediction model. The cancer drug developer will also be able to access Iambic's PropANE platform: a pre-trained graph neural network used to evaluate drug properties for lead selection and optimisation.Both Revolution and Iambic will retain rights to a limited number of exclusive targets; they will each be able to designate additional exclusive targets to pursue on their own, and have access to the customised AI models.Iambic stands to receive up to $25 million between an upfront payment and expected near-term performance-based milestones, in addition to ongoing R&D reimbursements."The capabilities of Iambic’s AI-driven discovery platform, partnered with our unique collection of proprietary data, present an opportunity to rapidly explore oncology targets known to be challenging to address through conventional drug discovery approaches," commented Revolution CEO Mark Goldsmith.Improving immunosuppression for isletsHot on the heels of Sernova Biotherapeutics' teaser of positive data from a Phase I/II trial of its islet cell therapy for type 1 diabetes, the company has now broadened its clinical plans for the programme, thanks to a new partnership with Eledon Pharmaceuticals.Sernova is developing the Cell Pouch Bio-hybrid Organ, an implantable medical device with a highly vascularised tissue matrix that creates an organ-like environment for islet cell engraftment. However, an immunosuppressive regimen using tacrolimus — which can increase the risks of infection, cancer, and cardiovascular disease — must be given in conjunction with the experimental treatment.Now, Sernova will evaluate in its ongoing Phase I/II study whether replacing the current regimen with Eledon's anti-CD40L antibody, tegoprubart, can prevent transplant rejection and minimise toxicities, particularly toward insulin-producing beta cells. Per the deal terms, Eledon will supply tegoprubart for the trial. Results from an investigator-initiated study in patients with type 1 diabetes who received islet transplants found that tegoprubart better protects transplanted cells, improving graft survival and function. No unexpected adverse events or hypoglycaemic episodes were reported. "These data suggest that combining our Cell Pouch Bio-hybrid Organ technology with Eledon’s innovative immunosuppression could enable patients to achieve insulin independence more rapidly and with significantly less toxicity to islet cells," remarked Sernova CEO Jonathan Rigby.