Astex extends collaboration with Novartis on fragment-based drug discovery

Collaboration extended

Astex Therapeutics Ltd of Cambridge, UK, said Novartis has exercised an option to extend its partnership in the discovery and development of cell-cycle control drugs for the treatment of cancer and other human diseases.

As a result, Novartis will fund additional research at Astex. When it was signed in December 2005, the $520 million deal with Novartis for three cell-cycle inhibitors, was the largest advertised figure for any deal involving a UK biotech to date.