By Aimee Look
Novartis said it agreed to pay up to $1.5 billion for Myricx Bio, in a bid to bolster its portfolio amid industry competition for oncology drugs.
The Swiss pharmaceutical company said it would purchase the privately held U.K.-based biotechnology firm, which is developing a new class of antibody-drug conjugates. Myricx Bio's approach delivers differentiated cancer-killing mechanisms directly to tumor cells, Novartis said.
Novartis will pay $1.1 billion upfront, with up to $400 million in potential additional payments. The deal, expected to close in the second half of 2026, is subject to regulatory approvals. Myricx Bio has a pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates that show pre-clinical efficacy and tolerability across tumor-associated antigens and cancer cell types, it said.
It is extraordinary for Novartis to purchase a platform that hasn't yet reached late-stage clinical development, analysts at Vontobel wrote in a note. Though the acquisition would strengthen Novartis' oncology offerings, it has a seemingly high upfront payment relative to potential milestone payments, the analysts added.
Myricx Bio was spun out from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute, with backers including Novo Holdings, Cancer Research Horizons and Eli Lilly. It raised 90 million pounds ($120.2 million) in Series A round in mid-2024. Mohit Rawat joined as CEO in 2025 to steer the company through pre-clinical development, it said.
Novartis this year agreed to buy a breast-cancer drug from Synnovation Therapeutics, and to purchase allergy drugmaker Excellergy.
U.K. drugmaker GSK, which has been on a spree of smaller acquisitions, recently agreed to buy U.S. cancer-drug developer Nuvalent for $10.6 billion in a bid to bolster its oncology business. Nuvalent had two drugs for lung cancer in late-stage development.
Write to Aimee Look at aimee.look@wsj.com