Novartis and Orionis get stuck in with new “molecular glue” R&D deal worth up to $1.4bn

The deal builds on the 2020 agreement between Orionis and Novartis where Ghent, Belgium-based Orionis made its debut. It continues Basel-based Novartis’ strategy of expanding its R&D efforts with similar-sized deals, either bolting on smaller biotechs or licensing in their technology. The collaboration expands an existing relationship between the companies as they explore the potential of “induced proximity” – binding a molecule to a target that it would normally miss.

Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis and Orionis will use the latter’s Allo-Glue platform, together with its AI-driven discovery engine, to accelerate target and ligase profiling and molecular glue optimization. Allo-Glue molecules act allosterically – away from the main binding site of a protein – to enable access to targets previously thought unapproachable. This enables the systematic discovery of small molecule glues that modulate therapeutic targets through induced proximity mechanisms.

Orionis will receive an upfront payment of $40 million and is eligible to receive research, development, and commercial milestone payments of up to $1.4 billion, in addition to tiered royalties on net sales of collaboration products.

The companies gave little away about the focus of the deal, except that it will involve “multiple disease areas”. Orionis says its technology in chemical biology, artificial intelligence‑driven molecular design, and large‑scale cell‑based interrogation, enables rational discovery of molecular glues for degradation, stabilisation or modulation of target proteins.

Orionis says it has a diversified pipeline of programs in oncology and immunology. It was originally founded by drug discovery and technology pioneers Niko Kley, who is CEO, and Jan Tavernier, CTO and Professor at VIB-Ghent University (Belgium), and VIB. Chief data scientist Riccardo Sabatini, joined the company as architect and leader of Orionis’ computational science platform.

Novartis deals

The Orionis deal sees Novartis continue its acquisition spree of promising biotechs. In March, Novartis agreed to acquire Excellergy, Inc. in a deal worth up to $2 billion to gain Exl-111, an anti-IgE antibody currently in Phase 1 development for food and other allergic conditions. In the same month, Novartis acquired Pikavation, a subsidiary of Synnovation Therapeutics, for $2 billion upfront plus $1 billion in milestones for an oral PI3K alpha inhibitor.

This followed a December 2025 deal where Novartis paid $55 million upfront to form a collaboration with UK-based Relation Therapeutics, with up to $1.7 billion in potential milestones, leveraging Relation’s AI and functional genomics platform to uncover novel targets for atopic and allergic diseases.

Novartis is also making more sizeable acquisitions, such as the October 2025 purchase of RNA therapeutics developer Avidity Biosciences. The deal was worth around $12 billion, and added three late-stage genetic disorder therapies to the Swiss pharma’s neuroscience and rare disease pipeline.