Licensing deals are how most early drug assets change hands. A larger company pays an upfront fee for rights to a molecule or platform, then milestone payments and royalties if the drug advances and sells. Headline values count every possible milestone, so the upfront payment is a better guide to what changes hands at signing.
On August 3, 2026, Pathos AI licensed rights outside Greater China to Alphamab Oncology's JSKN016, a TROP2/HER3 bispecific antibody-drug conjugate in Phase 3 for triple-negative breast cancer, for $125 million upfront and up to $2.093 billion in milestones. On September 22, Novartis licensed an undisclosed preclinical radioligand therapy from Suzhou-based BoomRay in a deal worth up to $900 million, with the upfront amount undisclosed. On September 24, InnoCare agreed to discover medicines for Eli Lilly against up to five cancer and autoimmune targets for up to $100 million in upfront and near-term payments and up to about $3.25 billion in milestones. The same evening, Novo Nordisk licensed Nanexa's PharmaShell coating technology for up to five long-acting peptide programs in a deal worth up to €1.165 billion; the €615 million near-term portion combines the upfront payment with development and regulatory milestones, and the rest depends on sales.
See #radioligand, #eli-lilly, and #novartis for adjacent threads.
Novo and Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2026 an exclusive license giving Novo global rights to HRS-1596, a GLP-1/GIP dual receptor agonist being developed for once-weekly oral dosing, outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, where Hengrui keeps the rights. Novo will pay $300 million upfront, and the deal is worth up to $2.6 billion including development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, plus royalties on sales. HRS-1596 is described as Phase 1-ready for weight management and type 2 diabetes; the deal requires Hart-Scott-Rodino clearance and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. Novo R&D chief Martin Holst Lange said the company wants to explore whether the drug can 'raise the bar for convenience.'
Swedish drug-delivery company Nanexa announced on the evening of Thursday, September 24, 2026 a global exclusive license and collaboration agreement giving Novo Nordisk rights to use its PharmaShell platform in up to five development programs for peptide-based drugs in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other cardiometabolic diseases. PharmaShell uses atomic layer deposition to apply an ultra-thin inorganic coating to individual drug particles to control their release, and the companies are targeting monthly and quarterly injection schedules. Nanexa can receive up to €1.165 billion, of which €615 million is an upfront payment plus development and regulatory milestones and the rest is sales milestones, along with low single-digit royalties; Novo will lead development and commercialization. Reuters reported that Nanexa's shares were up about 122% in Stockholm early on Friday, September 25.
InnoCare Pharma announced on Thursday, September 24, 2026 a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly to discover medicines against up to five undisclosed targets in cancer and autoimmune disease. InnoCare can receive up to $100 million in upfront and near-term payments and up to about $3.25 billion in development and commercial milestones, plus single-digit tiered royalties on sales. InnoCare will use its own discovery platform to find and advance compounds; the announcement did not specify the type of drug.
BoomRay Pharmaceuticals, a radioligand developer based in Suzhou, China, said on September 22, 2026 that Novartis took an exclusive worldwide license to an undisclosed preclinical radioligand therapy asset. BoomRay can receive up to $900 million, including an upfront payment and development, regulatory, and sales milestones, plus royalties on net sales; the upfront amount, target, isotope, and indication were not disclosed. Novartis global oncology head Shiva Malek said the asset complements the company's radioligand portfolio, which includes the peptide-based Lutathera and the PSMA-targeted Pluvicto. The license was announced one day after the Telix–ITM merger.
Pathos AI announced Wednesday August 5, 2026 a $2.09 billion licensing deal with Jiangsu Alphamab Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. for a TROP2/HER3 bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). The deal extends the ADC modality deal-making cycle that has produced substantial cross-border capital deployment across 2025-2026, notably including Merck's Chugai ADC franchise deal, AbbVie's 2023 ImmunoGen acquisition, the ongoing Pfizer-Seagen (Seattle Genetics) commercial integration, and the emerging peptide-drug conjugate (PDC) franchise developments. The Pathos AI-Alphamab deal complements the July 6 Novartis-Myricx $1.5 billion peptide-drug-conjugate alliance (upfront + biobucks) covered on the site's July digest. TROP2 (trophoblast cell surface antigen 2) is a well-validated oncology target with existing approved ADCs including AstraZeneca-Daiichi Sankyo's Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan) for triple-negative breast cancer; HER3 is a differentiated payload delivery target with limited approved-drug precedent. The bispecific ADC combines the two payload-targeting mechanisms in a single molecule with the goal of expanding tumor-cell-targeting selectivity and reducing off-target toxicity relative to single-target ADCs. Pathos AI is a US oncology-focused biotech backed by AI-driven target identification and drug-discovery platforms.