Cadent Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based, privately held clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of therapies for the treatment of cognitive, mood, and movement disorders, announced on December 17, 2020, that Novartis will acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of Cadent Therapeutics. Upon the closing of the agreement, Cadent will receive a $210 million upfront payment and will be eligible for up to $560 million in milestone payments, for a total potential consideration of $770 million.
The acquisition will give Novartis full rights to Cadent’s neuroscience portfolio, including its NMDAr program, which consists of two clinical programs: CAD-9303, a NMDAr positive allosteric modulator, and CAD-9271/MIJ-821, a NMDAr negative allosteric modulator, which was licensed to Novartis in 2015. Additionally, Novartis will gain full rights to CAD-1883, a clinical stage SK channel positive allosteric modulator in development for movement disorders.
CAD-9303 targets an ion channel called the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, which is underactive in patients with schizophrenia.
CAD-9271/MIJ-821 is a NMDAr negative allosteric modulator under development for treatment resistant depression (TRD).
CAD-1883 is a selective positive allosteric modulator of SK ion channels that Cadent has advanced into Phase 2 clinical trials and which may have potential in movement disorders.
“Since the company’s launch, the Cadent team has been focused on building a portfolio of next-generation small molecule treatments for cognitive, mood, and movement disorders,” said Jodie Morrison, Chief Executive Officer of Cadent Therapeutics. “The expertise of Novartis in development of CNS therapeutics – something we have witnessed first-hand in our existing collaboration — provides an ideal foundation for continued advancement of the Cadent pipeline and will ensure the broad potential of these drugs is realized for patients.”
Cadent and Novartis anticipate the transaction will close during the first quarter of 2021.
