Novartis has entered into a licensing and development agreement with Cambridge, UK-based Artios Pharma to develop new precision oncology drugs.

Under the deal, potentially worth in excess of $1.3 billion, Novartis will select three of Artios’ DNA damage-response drug candidates and develop them alongside its own radioligand therapies. DNA damage-response therapies are aimed at preventing cancer cells from repairing themselves and replicating, while radioligand drugs target tumors with radioactive isotopes.

Novartis will pay $20 million upfront and Artios will be eligible to receive a further $1.3 billion in discovery, development, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments, in addition to royalties.

The deal does not include Artios’ lead candidate, ART0380, an oral anti-cancer agent, or another drug in the company’s oncology pipeline, ART4215, a polymerase theta DNA repair enzyme inhibitor.