Seven Years: The Journey Behind Myricx's Acquisition by Novartis

Cancer doesn't run out of ways to fight back. When one treatment stops working, the disease adapts. For patients who've exhausted standard options, that adaptation can be fatal. Myricx Bio was built to solve exactly that problem, and this week, it announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Novartis for up to $1.5 billion, including $1.1 billion cash up front, marking Sofinnova's seventh acquisition in three years*. Below, we walk through the timeline of how this investment came to be, and why it is one of the firm's most closely held stories from first meeting to exit.

At Sofinnova, we build companies. We do that by backing exceptional people working on differentiated science and staying close to both from day one. The story of Myricx Bio is a precise illustration of that approach.

2018. Before joining Sofinnova Partners, Maina Bhaman had spent time at Imperial Innovations, Imperial College London's technology commercialization arm, where she worked alongside Roberto Solari, who introduced her to Ed Tate, a professor deep in NMT biology and running a collaboration with GSK. They had built genuine trust over time, grounded in shared scientific curiosity. When Maina Bhaman joined Sofinnova, she brought that relationship with her, one that few could have predicted would one day align so perfectly: the right people, the right science, the right moment. When Ed returned alongside co-founder Roberto Solari with compelling new data linking NMT inhibition to MYC, one the most difficult cancer targets in the field, long considered undruggable, Maina already knew what she was looking at. Strong science. Exceptional people. Chemistry anchored by Andrew Bell, a trusted ex-Pfizer chemist who would become the company's third co-founder.

2019. Sofinnova Partners and Brandon Capital co-led the seed investment. It was structured tightly around a single testable question: could the molecule achieve a therapeutic index that made clinical development viable?

2022-2023. As the data came through, the team asked a lateral question: could these NMT inhibitors work as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) instead? It was a genuine pivot, and not an obvious one. At the time, ADC investment was focused almost entirely on targets and linkers rather than payload innovation. The decision came down to a smart, low-risk bet: commit a small amount of bridge capital to test the hypothesis with a specialist CRO and let the data decide. What came back was a turning point for the company. The preclinical ADC data was exceptional, and it surfaced an insight that now sits at the core of Myricx's competitive position. That distinction became the IP foundation for everything that followed, and the company shifted from a single-asset small molecule story to an ADC payload platform.

2024. The £90m Series A, led by Novo Holdings and Abingworth, attracted the British Business Bank, Cancer Research Horizons, and Eli Lilly, with Sofinnova continuing its support from seed remaining the largest investor. The round was driven under the leadership of its current CTO, Robin Carr, PhD, and marked the company's formal pivot to a full ADC platform — designed to optimize the lead molecule and move it into the clinic as quickly as possible while advancing a second program toward IND. The execution since then has been outstanding.

2025. Myricx Bio appointed Mohit Rawat as CEO. Mohit was previously President of Fusion Pharmaceuticals, which he sold to AstraZeneca. He joined Myricx to steer the company through pre-clinical development and its next stage of growth, leading to this groundbreaking deal. The team expanded across Boston and London.

2026. Novartis's decision to acquire the company reflects both the progress it has made and the market's growing conviction that ADCs are now the defining modality in oncology. However, the field, has converged heavily on a narrow set of chemotherapy payloads, the same class of drugs that major pharma is now racing to replace as blockbuster cancer medicines face patent expiry over the next decade. Resistance to existing ADC mechanisms is already emerging, and post-topo patients have very few remaining options. Myricx's NMTi payload platform operates through a distinct, orthogonal mechanism and a differentiated toxicity profile, with lead assets targeting B7-H3 and HER2 across multiple solid tumor settings. That is precisely what the market is looking for, and what Novartis came for.

The syndicate assembled around Myricx reflects the strength of the UK and European oncology ecosystem. The science was born at Imperial College London, shaped by relationships with Cancer Research UK and The Crick Institute, and backed by a combination of UK, European, and US investors. The British Business Bank first came in at Series A and has continued to support through this outcome, a consistent vote of confidence in UK-origin innovation and the team building it. With two lead ADC assets, a next-generation NMTi payload platform, now advancing under Novartis, and an ADC market that continues to expand faster than almost any other area of oncology, the opportunity ahead is as compelling as it has ever been.