Italy's Angelini Pharma on Monday struck a deal to add a preclinical epilepsy asset to its brain health pipeline, which the company has been steadily expanding over the last two years through a string of partnerships.The agreement gives Angelini an exclusive option to develop and commercialise Sovargen's SVG105 outside Korea, China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. In exchange, the South Korean biotech will receive an upfront payment and could earn up to $550 million in milestones plus tiered royalties on post-approval net sales.SVG105 is a potentially first-in-class antisense oligonucleotide designed to suppress mTOR signaling, a pathway implicated in drug-resistant epilepsy caused by focal cortical dysplasia type II. "Our research so far demonstrates great potential for SVG105 to transform the treatment landscape in brain health," said Cheolwon Park, chief executive at Sovargen.The two companies will jointly run preclinical studies before Angelini decides whether to advance the compound into clinical testing.Angelini said the pact extends a deal-making run that has diversified its neuroscience portfolio. Recent transactions include collaborations with GRIN Therapeutics for the rare-epilepsy drug radiprodil, OmniAb for a preclinical Kv7.2 programme dubbed RO'599, Cureverse for a Nrf2-targeting brain health compound, and JCR Pharmaceuticals for blood-brain barrier technology. Angelini said its pipeline of brain health candidates "now includes diversified and modern therapeutic modalities ranging from innovative small molecule compounds to biologics and anti-sense oligonucleotides."
