Novartis is being accused of deliberately stalling the development of an acquired IL-15 asset, costing a smaller biotech up to $940 million in milestone payments plus additional damages and costs.
The lawsuit, filed July 3 on behalf of Admune Therapeutics and seller representative Aramis, alleges that the Swiss pharmaceutical company avoided paying key milestone payments by “stringing Aramis along.”
At the center of the litigation is an IL-15-targeting medication from Admune that was acquired by Novartis in October 2015 for $140 million upfront and $960 million in biobucks.
Lawyers for Aramis say the large pharma dragged its feet on the development process, despite receiving repeated concerns about the slow timetable from 2017 through 2020. Novartis allegedly assured Aramis during this period that development of the drug remained a top priority.
The effort — or lack thereof — cost Aramis hundreds of millions of dollars in missed milestone payments, according to the lawsuit, including a $100 million milestone check if Novartis had initiated a Phase 2 study.
Looming over the effort was ImmunityBio and its own IL-15 competitor, which Aramis was conscientious of and briefing Novartis on, the suit contends.
In a June 2021 meeting, Novartis executives conceded they had “fallen behind ImmunityBio,” according to the lawsuit. Less than two years later, Novartis communicated that it was halting recruitment in a Phase 1 study that had been ongoing for several years, though it planned to continue evaluating the product as a combo with other Novartis compounds.
“While Novartis was letting its dominant intellectual property in IL-15 wither on the vine, ImmunityBio was propelling IL-15 forward,” according to the complaint.
In February, Novartis told Aramis it no longer had plans to study the candidate at all and was looking to retransfer its rights. ImmunityBio, meanwhile, nabbed FDA approval in April for Anktiva as a treatment for a form of bladder cancer, joining a burgeoning treatment landscape that includes late-stage candidates from CG Oncology and Johnson & Johnson.
Aramis says that Novartis bungled conversations with ImmunityBio over potential IL-15 patent infringement. Sven Werner, Novartis’ head of business development and licensing, allegedly refused to detail conversations with ImmunityBio when requested by Aramis, saying that such messages were confidential.
A spokesperson for Novartis said it “met all legal obligations” associated with the deal and “will vigorously defend against the allegations.”