Switzerland-based Novartis has agreed to acquire IFM Tre from IFM Therapeutics, a United States biopharma company, in order to add certain immunomodulatory medicines to its range, it was reported yesterday.

The deal is valued at up to USD1.575bn. According to the terms of the deal, IFM Therapeutics will receive upfront payments of USD310m from Novartis and will be eligible to receive up to USD1.265bn in the form of milestone payments. The deal, which will be subject to customary closing conditions, is likely to be completed during the second quarter of 2019.

Through the acquisition, Novartis will obtain complete rights to IFM Tre's NLPR3 antagonist portfolio, made up of one clinical and two pre-clinical programs. The clinical stage program in the deal is IFM-2427, which is a systemic antagonist for a range of chronic inflammatory disorders such as atherosclerosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. The two IFM Tre pre-clinical stage programs to be acquired by Novartis under the deal are a gut-directed molecule for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, and a central nervous system-penetrant molecule.