Novartis pays Antares Therapeutics $105M to hunt new cancer drugs
What's the deal? NovartisDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → will pay biotechnology startup Antares Therapeutics $105 million as part of a multi-target research collaboration to find the Swiss pharmaceutical giant new cancer medicines.
Antares stands to gain up to $1.8 billion more if it discovers worthwhile targets and hits development and commercialisation milestones, the companies said. It is also eligible for tiered royalties in "the low double-digit range" on resulting products.
Why now? Novartis has spent the past three years — and billions of dollars — loading its pipeline with cancer drug prospects, including the 2024 acquisitions of MorphoSys and Mariana Oncology. The deal extends a string of research collaborations aimed at expanding its oncology pipeline beyond its blockbuster radiopharmaceuticals franchise.
Antares is a spinout of Scorpion Therapeutics that launched in 2025, developing experimental medicines left behind after Eli Lilly scooped up one of Scorpion's drugs in a deal worth as much as $2.5 billion.
"This collaboration lets us scale that engine alongside Novartis' world-class development capabilities and global reach," said Adam Friedman, Antares' chief executive officer.
What could go wrong? Antares has stayed quiet on what its drugs are, touting only its discovery engine as the differentiator in finding new small molecules for cancer. The biotech is advancing its first program, a "precision oncology" medicine, into the clinic later in 2026. Much of the $1.8 billion upside hinges on early-stage assets that may never reach patients.
The signal: Novartis, a corporate investor, is showing signs of slowing its spree to acquire promising early-stage assets, favouring research collaborations instead. With Antares already tied to Pierre Fabre Laboratories and AstraZeneca, the deal suggests young biotechs can monetise discovery engines without selling outright.
Read more: BioPharma Dive
