Just a year after spinning out from Scorpion Therapeutics, Antares Therapeutics has secured a big pharma partner to help advance its pipeline of undruggable oncology targeting therapies.
Novartis has outlaid up to $1.9bn to collaborate with Antares Therapeutics, with the two companies working together to discover, develop, and commercialise small molecule therapies for cancers.
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As per the deal, Novartis will pay $105m upfront, along with up to $1.8bn in additional payments across programmes. The latter includes exercise, development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, as well as royalties for the US biotech.
Antares will lead all research and apply its drug discovery engine to a “limited” number of undisclosed oncology targets until Novartis decides to license the asset in question.
Antares spun out from Scorpion Therapeutics in June 2025. At the time, it was siphoned off with three preclinical candidates and $177m in Series A funding. Scorpion itself had already secured a large exit in January 2025, after Eli Lilly spent up to $2.5bn to buy the biotech’s PI3Kα pipeline.
Antares’ lead precision oncology programme is expected to enter the clinic in 2026, with multiple additional programmes in preclinical development.
According to Antares, it tackles undruggable targets by using a combination of proprietary compound libraries, a next-generation mass spectrometry experimental and computational platform, and innovative pocket-finding approaches.
Adam Friedman, CEO of Antares, said: “From the outset, our goal has been to build a discovery engine that systematically unlocks high-value, challenging targets and delivers first-in-class precision medicines. This collaboration lets us scale that engine alongside Novartis’ world-class development capabilities and global reach, so we can translate our science into transformative therapies for patients faster than either of us could alone. It builds on the work of a team that has consistently produced highly selective medicines against some of the hardest targets in drug discovery.”
Fiona Marshall, president of biomedical research at Novartis, commented: “Many of the most compelling targets today in oncology have historically been considered undruggable. We believe this collaboration has the potential to unlock a new wave of targeted therapies and bring meaningful advances to patients.”
Oncology sales for Novartis grew 18% to $16.8bn in 2025, cementing its status as the big pharma company’s largest therapeutic segment. Breast cancer drug Kisqali (ribociclib) is Novartis’ top-performing oncology product, generating $4.8bn in global revenue in 2025.
Novartis has been amongst the quieter dealmaking pharma companies so far in 2026, with transactions smaller in size compared to rivals. The Swiss drugmaker spent up to $3bn to buy a portfolio of pan-mutant‑selective PI3Kα inhibitors from Synnovation Therapeutics in March 2026, then outlaid $2bn to acquire allergy specialist Excellergy in May.
US pharma and life sciences deal value in Q1 2026 surpassed $65bn, marking the strongest quarter since pandemic-related highs in 2020. The two largest deals in pharma came in Q2 – Sun Pharma’s $11.75bn takeover of Organon and GSK’s $10.6bn acquisition of cancer specialist Nuvalent in April and June, respectively.
