Matchpoint Therapeutics Inc. and Novartis AG have entered into an exclusive option and license agreement to develop and commercialize oral covalent inhibitors targeting a transcription factor linked to a number of inflammatory diseases. Matchpoint’s approach leverages the properties of covalent chemistry and a proprietary platform to target a novel binding site on a historically hard-to-drug protein.

Matchpoint Therapeutics Inc. has launched with $100 million in financing to research drugs based on covalent chemistry targeting inflammatory diseases, aiming to offer more patient-friendly oral alternatives to the biologic injections that dominate the field.