Brandon Capital backed Myricx Bio from its 2019 seed round
Myricx Bio has agreed to be acquired by Novartis in a deal valued at up to US$1.5 billion, or about $2.16 billion. That price includes an upfront cash payment of US$1.1 billion, or about $1.58 billion, plus potential milestone payments.
Brandon Capital announced the exit in Melbourne, Australia, on 6 July 2026. The venture capital firm was a joint founding seed investor in 2019 and kept a substantial shareholding through to the acquisition.
Myricx Bio is a UK-based pre-clinical oncology company. It develops a novel class of payloads for antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs.
ADCs are an emerging type of cancer therapy. They combine the targeting precision of antibodies with tumour-killing small-molecule payloads.
Novartis will add Myricx Bio’s two lead ADC assets and its next-generation N-myristoyltransferase inhibitor, or NMTi, payload platform. According to Brandon Capital, the platform could have impact across multiple solid tumour settings.
Brandon Capital helped form Myricx Bio from research at Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute. Dr Roberto Solari, a venture partner at Brandon Capital, co-founded the company and served as its founding chief executive.
Managing Partner Dr Stephen Thompson led Brandon Capital’s investment. He also helped steer early development and later financings, while Myricx Bio chief executive Mohit Rawat led the company through to the sale.
Dr Jonathan Tobin joined in 2023
In 2023, Brandon Capital’s UK-based partner Dr Jonathan Tobin joined Myricx Bio as executive director. He helped build the company’s ADC capability and worked on raising the Series A round.
Tobin is also a co-inventor on one of Myricx Bio’s ADC patents. Dr Roberto Solari and chief scientific officer Dr Francesca Zammarchi are listed as co-inventors as well.
Tobin said the acquisition by Novartis showed the strength of Myricx Bio’s founders and management. He also called it a validation of Brandon Capital’s approach of backing world-class science early.
Rawat said building biotech companies from early-stage concepts into medicines takes time, conviction and capital. He credited Brandon Capital with recognising the potential of the NMT platform at an early stage.
The exit will deliver a significant return for Brandon Capital’s investors. Those backers include Australian superannuation funds Hostplus, HESTA and Aware Super, as well as CSL and QIC.
As a result, Brandon Capital adds another major exit to its life sciences record. The deal also strengthens Novartis in oncology by adding pre-clinical ADC programmes and a platform aimed at solid tumours.
