Sofinnova Partners announced that its portfolio company Myricx Bio has reached an agreement to be acquired by Novartis. The deal is valued at up to $1.5 billion, including $1.1 billion in cash upfront plus potential milestone payments.
The transaction marks Sofinnova Partners’ seventh exit in three years. Sofinnova has backed Myricx Bio since the company’s seed stage and remained an investor through the acquisition agreement.
Myricx Bio is a UK-headquartered transatlantic biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of a novel class of payloads for antibody-drug conjugates. The company’s platform is built around next-generation N-myristoyltransferase inhibitor payloads.
The NMTi payload platform is designed to address the narrow therapeutic windows and tolerability challenges that have limited earlier generations of ADCs. These include payload classes such as TOPO-1 and tubulin inhibitors.
Myricx Bio’s two lead ADC assets target B7-H3 and HER2. The assets are designed to apply the company’s differentiated approach across a broad range of solid tumor types, where there remains significant unmet medical need.
The company was spun out from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute with support from Cancer Research UK. Myricx Bio was founded by Professor Ed Tate, Roberto Solari, and Andrew Bell, with seed investment from Sofinnova Partners and Brandon Capital in 2019.
Sofinnova said it helped shape Myricx Bio’s strategic direction at a pivotal point by supporting the company’s decision to pivot from small molecule development to an ADC payload platform. That shift helped establish the broader applicability of the NMTi platform across tumor types.
Myricx Bio raised a £90 million Series A financing in mid-2024, led by Novo Holdings and Abingworth. The round also included British Business Bank, Cancer Research Horizons, Eli Lilly, Brandon Capital, and Sofinnova Partners.
The acquisition brings together Novartis’ oncology development and commercial capabilities with Myricx Bio’s lead ADC assets and first-in-class NMTi payload platform. The companies expect the combination to accelerate the development of more effective and better-tolerated therapies for patients with limited treatment options.
Myricx Bio is headquartered in London and has teams in the UK and U.S. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
Sofinnova Partners is a European life sciences venture capital firm focused on healthcare and sustainability. Founded in 1972, the firm has backed more than 500 companies and manages over €4 billion in assets.
KEY QUOTES:
“Myricx Bio is a powerful example of what European life sciences can produce when you combine world-class academic science with the right venture support from the very beginning. This acquisition by Novartis is not only a validation of Myricx Bio’s platform but a demonstration of what is possible when Europe backs its own innovation with conviction. That is precisely what Sofinnova exists to do.”
Antoine Papiernik, Chairman and Managing Partner of Sofinnova Partners
“I first met Roberto and Ed at Imperial, long before any of this existed. The team at Myricx Bio has executed with exceptional discipline and ambition ever since, evolving the company from a seed hypothesis to a Novartis acquisition, and supporting them along that journey has been one of the great privileges of my career. This is the outcome our model is built to deliver: identifying exceptional science and people early and supporting them at every stage.”
Maina Bhaman, Partner at Sofinnova Partners
“This acquisition is a tremendous endorsement of the leadership of our NMTi-ADC platform, and the insights, innovation and achievements of our founders and team towards our mission of providing more effective and better tolerated therapeutic options for cancer patients. Together with Novartis, we look forward to building upon our work to transform the landscape of cancer treatment.”
Mohit Rawat, CEO of Myricx Bio
