ProFound Therapeutics has entered into a four-year strategic collaboration with Novartis to discover and develop novel therapeutics for cardiovascular disease, leveraging the company's proprietary ProFoundry Platform to mine the expanded human proteome for previously unknown drug targets. The partnership, announced on June 26, 2025, represents a significant investment in next-generation target discovery with potential total value exceeding $775 million per target.
Financial Terms and Structure
Under the collaboration agreement, ProFound will receive $25 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments, with potential downstream milestone payments of $750 million per selected target. The deal also includes additional tiered royalties, positioning it as one of the more substantial target discovery partnerships in the cardiovascular space.
The four-year collaboration structure allows both companies to systematically explore the expanded proteome and advance promising targets through early development stages, with Novartis leveraging its established cardiovascular drug development capabilities.
ProFoundry Platform Technology
The ProFoundry Platform represents a novel approach to drug target identification, combining multi-layered sources of biological data with advanced computational tools to uncover proteins hidden within the expanded human proteome. This technology platform systematically identifies and validates novel proteins while dissecting their therapeutic potential, creating an ever-expanding database of tens of thousands of novel proteins with detailed information about their connectivity, functionality, and roles in health and disease.
The platform uses state-of-the-art protein detection technologies to go beyond traditional target discovery approaches, tapping into vast, largely unexplored biology within the expanded human proteome. This approach aims to identify entirely new classes of drug targets that may have been previously inaccessible through conventional methods.
Strategic Rationale and Leadership Perspectives
"We are thrilled to partner with Novartis, whose leadership in cardiovascular innovation is widely recognized across the industry," said John Lepore, M.D., CEO of ProFound Therapeutics and Flagship Pioneering CEO-Partner. "This collaboration further validates the power of our ProFoundry Platform to go beyond traditional target discovery approaches by tapping into the vast, largely unexplored biology of the expanded human proteome. Together, we have the opportunity to accelerate the discovery of entirely new targets and support the development of transformative therapies to address the growing global burden of cardiovascular disease."
Fiona Marshall, Ph.D., President, Biomedical Research at Novartis, emphasized the strategic alignment: "Novartis is committed to identifying novel therapeutic targets to drive the discovery and development of innovative medicines for patients with cardiovascular disease. We are excited to collaborate with ProFound and combine our respective expertise and capabilities to explore under-researched biology, uncover new mechanisms, and translate pioneering science into life-changing treatments."
Addressing Cardiovascular Disease Burden
The collaboration aims to bring innovative solutions to a growing population of patients by combining ProFound's unique protein identification capabilities with Novartis' exceptional cardiovascular drug development expertise. Novartis brings a longstanding commitment to helping people with cardiovascular diseases, providing the clinical development infrastructure necessary to translate novel discoveries into therapeutic interventions.
Company Background
ProFound Therapeutics, founded in 2020 by Flagship Pioneering, focuses on discovering proteins hidden within the expanded human proteome to develop first-in-class medicines for multiple diseases. The company's approach represents a systematic effort to unlock previously inaccessible therapeutic targets through advanced protein detection and validation technologies.
