$150 Million Upfront in Novartis, Dren Bio Cancer Therapy Deal
Key Facts
Dren Bio announced on July 24, 2024, a strategic collaboration agreement with Novartis Pharma AG to discover and develop bispecific therapeutic antibodies for cancer. The research draws on Dren Bio’s proprietary platform for targeting myeloid cells and enhancing phagocytosis. The announcement sets out the scope of the collaboration, but does not announce a resulting treatment or the addition of a specific program to Novartis’ pipeline. The deal news therefore dates to July 2024, not October 2026. That month, Dren Bio announced the close of a separate private financing, not a new deal with Novartis.
Under the terms announced by Dren Bio, the company is due $150 million upfront from Novartis, including a $25 million equity investment. In addition, it may receive up to $2.85 billion in cash payments tied to the achievement of specified milestones. Those milestones include preclinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial aspects. The agreement’s wording means the additional amount is conditional on completing those milestones, not a guaranteed payment upon signing. The terms also provide Dren Bio with tiered royalties on net sales of products commercialized as a result of the collaboration.
The two companies will share work in the early stages of selected cancer therapy programs based on myeloid cell targeting. Their collaboration will continue through the selection of clinical candidates, according to Dren Bio’s statement. After that selection point, Novartis will assume full responsibility for the remainder of development, manufacturing, regulatory and marketing work. The arrangement ties the transfer of responsibilities to a specific stage in program development: clinical candidate selection. The announcement did not name the selected programs or report clinical results for any treatment under the agreement.
Shiva Malik, head of oncology research at Novartis, said the agreement represented “a promising opportunity to discover new bispecific antibody therapies for cancer.” Malik linked the opportunity to the company’s expertise in immuno-oncology. The statement is consistent with the announced scope of the agreement, which focuses on discovering and developing antibodies, not a ready-to-use treatment or clinical efficacy data. According to the announcement, the agreement was subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. The statement did not specify when those conditions would be completed or set a timetable for selecting clinical candidates.
Other developments involving Dren Bio point to activity across its programs, but do not reveal the status of its programs with Novartis. On October 29, 2026, the company said it had closed a $350 million private financing to support the late-stage clinical development of DB-0202 and expand its pipeline, including programs using the platform involved in the collaboration. The company’s website said the DR-0202 program began a first-in-human clinical study across several solid tumors in June 2025. That is separate from the Novartis programs, which the company has not named. Sanofi also announced an agreement on March 20, 2025, to acquire DR-0201 for $600 million upfront, with potential future payments of $1.3 billion; that does not establish the status of the Novartis programs.
Novartis said in an investor presentation dated January 14, 2025, that it had signed more than 30 strategic deals over the previous two years to strengthen its pipeline across therapeutic areas and technology platforms. The statement places the Dren Bio agreement in the context of a broader approach described by the company itself, without specifying the agreement’s contribution to Novartis’ results or pipeline. In trading, EL7 data recorded Novartis shares closing at $156.08 on October 28, 2026. The available data do not include the session’s high and low prices cited in the previous version of the story. Nor do they provide a basis for linking the closing price to the agreement announced in 2024.