CAMBRIDGE, MA — October 22, 2026
The ability to effectively deliver therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier remains one of the greatest challenges in drug development. Through their recently announced strategic Asset Purchase, Option and Collaboration Agreement (“the Agreement”), Nona Biosciences (“Nona”) and Lonza Sales AG (“Lonza”) are combining complementary expertise to advance next-generation BBB-crossing technologies and expand new possibilities for CNS therapeutics.
In the following interview, Dr. Di Hong, Chief Executive Officer of Nona, shares his perspective on the strategic vision behind this Agreement, the importance of next-generation BBB technologies, and how the Nona-Lonza partnership will help enable future therapeutic innovation.
Q1: Nona Biosciences and Lonza recently announced a strategic Asset Purchase, Option and Collaboration Agreement. What makes this agreement significant?
Dr. Di Hong: This agreement represents an important milestone and reflects our shared commitment to advancing innovation in central nervous system therapeutics. It combines several key elements, including the transfer of rights to our transferrin receptor (TfR1) blood-brain barrier technology, future development opportunities, and continued scientific collaboration.
Most importantly, this collaboration brings together complementary strengths. Nona contributes innovative antibody discovery platforms and expertise in fully human single-domain antibodies, while Lonza brings world-class capabilities in biologics development, manufacturing, and commercialization. Together, we are creating a strong foundation to accelerate the next generation of BBB-crossing technologies for our customers.
Q2: Why is blood-brain barrier delivery such an important focus for the future of CNS therapeutics?
DH: The blood-brain barrier remains one of the greatest challenges in developing effective therapies for neurological diseases. While many promising biologics have demonstrated significant therapeutic potential, efficiently delivering them to the brain continues to be a major obstacle.
At Nona, advances in antibody engineering have helped address this challenge. Our proprietary HCAb Harbour Mice® platform enables the discovery of fully human single-domain antibodies with exceptional affinity and developability, providing a powerful foundation for designing innovative BBB-crossing solutions.
Our collaboration with Lonza builds on encouraging preclinical research, where Nona’s TfR1-binding single-domain VHH technology, either as an IgG fusion or conjugated using Lonza’s GlycoConnect® technology, demonstrated enhanced brain delivery compared with a leading industry benchmark in a relevant transgenic model. These findings reinforce our confidence in the potential of this approach to advance next-generation CNS therapeutics.
Ultimately, our shared ambition is to develop best-in-class BBB-crossing technologies that expand opportunities for a broad range of therapeutic modalities and help unlock new possibilities for our customers and their patients living with CNS diseases.
Q3: How do Nona and Lonza complement one another in this collaboration?
DH: The strength of this collaboration lies in the complementary expertise of both organizations. Nona has built innovative discovery platforms that enable the rapid generation of differentiated antibody candidates, including our clinically validated HCAb Harbour Mice® platform. Lonza contributes decades of experience in biologics development, protein engineering, manufacturing, and commercialization.
Through this collaboration, Lonza can offer technology licensing, fully integrated development, and commercial manufacturing at any stage of a customer’s journey. By combining our platform with Lonza’s development and manufacturing expertise, we believe we can deliver next-generation BBB-crossing solutions that unlock new treatment paradigms and accelerate the translation of promising programs into potential therapies.
Q4: How does this Agreement support Nona Biosciences’ long-term strategy?
DH: Innovation has always been at the core of Nona. Our strategy is to develop differentiated technology platforms that solve some of the most challenging problems in biologics discovery and development. Brain delivery represents one of those complex challenges, and this agreement validates both our scientific approach and our long-term commitment to advancing next-generation technologies.
At the same time, collaborations such as this allow us to broaden the impact of our platforms alongside partners whose expertise complements our own.
Q5: Looking ahead, what excited you most about the future of this collaboration?
DH: What excites me most is that this collaboration establishes a framework for continued innovation.
Beyond the technologies included today, we see significant opportunities to explore new approaches to brain delivery, expand the application of single-domain antibodies, and enable the next generation of therapeutic modalities. By combining Nona’s and Lonza’s respective expertise, we believe we can continue developing technologies that help drug developers and researchers overcome some of medicine’s most difficult challenges.
Closing Statement
DH: At Nona Biosciences, we believe meaningful innovation is built through collaboration. By bringing together Nona’s expertise in antibody discovery and Lonza’s leadership in biologics development and manufacturing, we are creating new opportunities to advance brain delivery technologies for the next generation of CNS therapeutics.
We look forward to continuing this collaboration and supporting our partners in transforming scientific innovation into therapies that can make a meaningful difference for patients. Our strategy has always been focused on developing technology platforms that solve complex challenges in biologics discovery and therapeutic development, and we believe partnerships like this are essential to accelerating innovation for patients worldwide.
