Relation, a biopharmaceutical company developing medicines across immunology, metabolic, and bone diseases, announced a multi-program, strategic collaboration with Novartis on December 9th, 2025. The partnership, valued at up to approximately $1.75 billion, aims to discover and advance novel targets for atopic diseases.

According to a company press release, Novartis will pay Relation $55 million upfront for their target identification, validation, and advancement services. Payments totaling an additional $1.7 billion are contingent on various preclinical, development, regulatory, and commercial sales milestones, and Relation will also be eligible for tiered royalties on net sales of commercial products derived from the collaboration.

In turn, Relation will lead observational studies to uncover causal genes and refine target hypotheses. Relation’s proprietary drug discovery platform is designed to generate functional cell atlases directly from patients’ tissues, a measure that intends to capture the disease state in humans with enhanced resolution relative to other approaches.

“Atopic diseases affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Our technology defines the molecular pathways in diseased tissue compared to healthy tissue to help discover possible new therapeutics for medicines,” said David Roblin, CEO, Relation, in the release. “Together with Novartis’s development and commercialization capabilities, we can potentially deliver medicines that transform the standard of care.”

“At Novartis, we are dedicated to harnessing cutting-edge, AI-driven approaches that enhance novel target identification and accelerate drug discovery, delivering innovative medicines for patients in need,” said Fiona H. Marshall, Ph.D., President, Biomedical Research, Novartis, in the release. “Our collaboration with Relation will combine complementary expertise, technologies and capabilities to advance new options for patients living with atopic diseases.”