Drugmakers closed out the week by deploying billions across autoimmune treatments, next-generation obesity pills, and cancer drug combinations.
Novartis secured the week’s largest headline figure, inking a deal with China’s Abogen worth up to $7.8 billion for an experimental RNA-based immune therapy.
Sanofi committed the week’s largest single cash payment, spending $1 billion upfront to extend its inflammation franchise built around the blockbuster eczema drug Dupixent.
Novo Nordisk entered a licensing agreement worth up to $2.6 billion for a once-weekly oral obesity candidate sourced from Chinese drugmaker Hengrui.
Under the Novartis-Abogen agreement, Novartis receives exclusive worldwide rights to ABO2203, an RNA drug engineered to prompt the body into producing a protein that eliminates disease-causing immune cells.
Target conditions for ABO2203 include autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, with Abogen also granting Novartis options on additional programs from its broader RNA platform.
The deal includes a $575 million upfront payment, with the remaining $7.2 billion contingent on development, regulatory approval, and sales milestones, as well as the exercise of those platform options.
Sanofi and Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN), partners since 2007 on Dupixent, will co-develop four new long-acting antibodies targeting the same inflammatory pathways, splitting development costs and profits equally on the new drugs.
One of those candidates, REGN20423, is already in early-stage testing for atopic dermatitis, while the remaining three are expected to enter clinical studies in 2027.
Novo Nordisk’s deal with Hengrui centers on HRS-1596, a once-weekly oral drug that targets both the GLP-1 and GIP appetite and blood-sugar pathways, with Novo paying $300 million upfront for rights outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.
AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN) made a $2 billion equity investment in Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT) to gain access to ivonescimab, a dual-target antibody blocking both PD-1 and VEGF, which the companies plan to test alongside AstraZeneca’s experimental drug sonesitatug vedotin in gastrointestinal cancers.
Merck (NYSE: MRK) meanwhile struck the week’s earliest-stage deal, acquiring worldwide rights to SPR2015, a lab-stage pill from SciBrunch targeting the KRAS G12D cancer mutation, for $400 million upfront in a transaction valued at up to $2.13 billion.
Merck said it will record the upfront payment as a third-quarter charge of approximately $0.13 per share, with SciBrunch eligible to receive the remaining balance upon hitting development and commercial milestones.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around NVS and MRK was “bearish” at the time of reporting, while sentiment around AZN, SNY, and NVO was “neutral,” and sentiment around SMMT and REGN was “bullish” or “extremely bullish.”
