Novartis and UK Biotech Relation Announce R&D Collaboration
Deal Potentially Valued at $1.7 Billion Focuses on AI and Functional Genomics to Address Atopic Diseases
Novartis, the major pharmaceutical corporation, has signed a multi-program research and development partnership agreement with Relation Therapeutics, an AI-driven biotech company based in the UK. The collaboration’s goal is to identify, validate, and advance first-in-class therapeutic targets for atopic diseases, conditions that affect hundreds of millions of people globally.
Under the terms of the agreement, Relation will receive $55 million in upfront payments, equity investment, and R&D funding from Novartis. Additionally, Relation is eligible to earn up to $1.7 billion through various milestone payments (preclinical, development, regulatory, and commercial sales), along with tiered royalties on net sales of any resulting products.
Combining AI and Immuno-Dermatology Expertise
The partnership will leverage Relation’s AI-driven drug discovery platform alongside Novartis’s deep expertise in immuno-dermatology. The collaboration aims to address the unmet medical needs of patients suffering from immune dysregulation-driven conditions.
The CEO of Relation noted that the collaboration stemmed from a shared interest in using advanced functional genomics and AI to unlock new therapeutic opportunities. He emphasized that the companies’ capabilities were highly complementary and that working together could accelerate programs of mutual interest. Novartis’s leadership in integrating computation, AI, and experimental systems into drug discovery was highlighted as a key factor leading to the formal collaboration.
Capital Raise to Scale Platform
Concurrent with the Novartis deal announcement, Relation also disclosed an additional $26 million investment from its existing investors, including NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), DCVC, and Magnetic Ventures.
This additional funding will be allocated to accelerate the next phase of Relation’s platform-enabled discovery and development work. Part of the funding will support advancing the company’s osteoporosis programs and strengthening its Lab-in-the-Loop platform by scaling both computational and experimental capabilities to broaden its impact across multiple disease areas. While bone health serves as the starting point, Relation is expanding its exploratory work into immunology and metabolic disease.
Relation’s overarching goal is to reduce the historically high failure rates in drug development by combining advanced computational tools with real-world patient data.
