Overview
- Novartis agreed to buy UK‑based Myricx Bio for up to $1.5 billion, with $1.1 billion paid upfront and up to $400 million tied to development milestones.
- The acquisition gives Novartis Myricx’s N‑myristoyltransferase inhibitor, or NMTi, payload platform and two lead antibody‑drug conjugates targeting B7‑H3 and HER2 that are currently at the preclinical stage.
- The companies announced the agreement on Monday, and Novartis expects the transaction to close in the second half of 2026 after customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals are met.
- Myricx’s NMTi payloads are designed to block an enzyme that helps cancer cells survive, which preclinical data suggest could work across solid tumours and in models resistant to current payloads such as TOPO‑1 inhibitors, but this effect is not yet clinically proven.
- The deal is a major investor exit for Myricx, which had raised about $121 million, and it reflects a wider industry push by large drugmakers to buy novel ADC payload technologies to address resistance, tolerability limits and pipeline gaps.