Healthcare
Sofinnova Partners Announces Myricx Bio Agrees to Be Acquired by Novartis
PARIS & LONDON, July 06, 2026--Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announced that its portfolio company Myricx Bio ("Myricx") has reached agreement to be acquired by Novartis, for up to $1.5 billion including $1.1 billion cash upfront plus potential milestone payments. This marks Sofinnova Partners' seventh exit in three years.
About this update from Novartis Ag
PARIS & LONDON, July 06, 2026 --( BUSINESS WIRE )--Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announced that its portfolio company Myricx Bio ("Myricx") has reached agreement to be acquired by Novartis, for up to $1.5 billion including $1.1 billion cash upfront plus potential milestone payments. This marks Sofinnova Partners' seventh exit in three years. Myricx Bio is a UK-headquartered transatlantic biotech 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 (NMTi) payloads, a differentiated mechanism of action designed to address the narrow therapeutic windows and tolerability challenges that have limited earlier generations of ADCs, such as TOPO-1 and tubulin inhibitor payload classes. Myricx Bio's two lead ADC assets, directed towards the established targets B7-H3 and HER2, are designed to bring this differentiated approach to patients across a broad range of solid tumor types, an area of significant unmet medical need. Spun out from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute, with the support of Cancer Research UK, the company was founded by Professor Ed Tate, Roberto Solari, and Andrew Bell, with seed investment from Sofinnova Partners and Brandon Capital in 2019. Sofinnova has remained a committed investor throughout the company's evolution, from seed through to this acquisition. The acquisition advances ADC innovation by bringing together the strengths of Novartis in oncology with Myricx Bio's two lead ADC assets and next-generation first-in-class NMTi payload platform, having potential impact across multiple solid tumor settings. By pairing Novartis' global oncology development and commercial capabilities with Myricx Bio's differentiated payload technology, the combination is intended to accelerate the delivery of more effective and better-tolerated therapies to patients with limited treatment options today.