Novartis acquires Myricx Bio in a deal worth up to $1.5 billion

In particular, the company is developing two drug candidates directed against the B7-H3 and Her2 targets, with potential applications in various solid tumours. The programmes have so far yielded promising preclinical results. For Novartis, the transaction also offers the opportunity to help establish NMTIs, should they be clinically validated, as a new class of ADCs applicable to further therapeutic targets and platforms.

“ADCs have become an important part of cancer treatment, but there is a clear need for new delivery mechanisms to overcome resistance and broaden their impact on patients,” says Fiona Marshall, President of Biomedical Research at Novartis, who continues: “Myricx Bio has developed a promising NMTI inhibition platform with a differentiated mechanism of action that could broaden the use of ADCs across various tumour types. This proposed acquisition reflects our strategy of scaling up innovative platforms, as we have done with radioligand therapies, to offer patients more durable and transformative treatments.”

Established as a spin-off from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute, with the support of Cancer Research UK, Myricx Bio was founded in 2019 by Ed Tate, Roberto Solari and Andrew Bell, thanks to initial investment from Sofinnova Partners and Brandon Capital.

Sofinnova Partners has supported the biotech company throughout its growth journey, from the early stages right through to the acquisition. In a statement, the European venture capital firm specialising in the life sciences emphasises that this marks its seventh exit in the last three years, confirming the “ability of European venture capital to transform outstanding academic research into biotech companies of international significance”, the statement reads.

“Myricx Bio is a prime example of what the European life sciences sector can achieve when world-class academic research is combined with the right financial support from the very early stages,” comments Antoine Papiernik, chairman and managing partner of Sofinnova Partners, adding: “This acquisition by Novartis not only validates Myricx Bio’s platform, but also demonstrates what can be achieved when Europe wholeheartedly supports its own innovation.”

The patent cliff – the now-familiar ‘patent precipice’ looming over the major pharmaceutical companies – seemed set to be the main driver of a record year for mergers and acquisitions in the biotech sector. However, with the value of deals rising steadily, it is becoming increasingly clear that the fear of losing exclusivity over blockbuster drugs is not the only factor fuelling the market.

Since the start of the year, 23 M&A deals in the biotech sector have been completed, with a total value of 94 billion dollars, approaching the 103 billion invested throughout 2025 via 22 transactions, according to Bernstein Research. Whilst some acquisitions, such as Merck’s takeover of Tern, worth $6.7 billion, are driven by the need to fill future revenue gaps, others follow a decidedly less defensive strategy. This is the case with AbbVie’s acquisition of Apogee Therapeutics for $10.9 billion. AbbVie, too, faces a future patent expiry: the antipsychotic drug Vraylar, set to lose its exclusivity in 2030, generates around 5 per cent of the group’s turnover. However, the most significant acquisition of the last five years represents, above all, a move to strengthen its franchise in immunology, a segment facing increasing competitive pressure from Johnson & Johnson.

The next wave of patent expiries is undoubtedly a powerful catalyst. Over the next seven years, the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies risk losing revenue amounting to 2.5 times the figure affected by expiries over the previous sixteen years. Yet many of the deals finalised in 2026 involved assets still in the early stages of development. Bernstein estimates that around 60 per cent of the total value of this year’s biotech acquisitions is attributable to projects in Phase 2 or earlier – that is, from the first stage at which an experimental drug is tested on patients. Over the past five years, this proportion has averaged around 45 per cent.

Eli Lilly, which has historically focused on acquiring early-stage research programmes, has further accelerated this strategy. During the year, it acquired Ajax Therapeutics, a company with a Phase 1 programme, for $2.3 billion, as well as taking over three companies active in early-stage vaccine development for around $1 billion each. Novartis has invested $4 billion in the acquisition of two early-stage biotech companies, whilst Gilead, traditionally focused on HIV, is expanding its exposure to therapeutic areas such as oncology through the acquisition of Tubulis, a company with a Phase 2 asset.

The acceleration in extraordinary activities is also due to improvements in the regulatory environment. The lengthy antitrust litigation following the acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics by Amgen in 2023 had cooled the market for major pharmaceutical deals in the United States during Joe Biden’s administration. The current, more permissive approach taken by the antitrust authorities has, however, made the environment more favourable to extraordinary transactions. Furthermore, the agreements previously reached between major pharmaceutical groups and President Donald Trump on drug prices in the United States have helped to make the valuation of biotech assets more predictable, thereby facilitating investment decisions.

The market is also being buoyed by ample capital. According to EY, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies began 2026 with a potential acquisition capacity of a record 2,100 billion dollars. In the case of AbbVie, for example, even after the Apogee deal, the group could still allocate over $100 billion to new acquisitions before reaching a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 3.5 times.