Editor’s Take: It was a fast start to the second half of 2026 from an acquisition perspective.

On “The Friday Brief” … Coming back from the July 4th holiday, no shortage of pharma wheelings and dealings to begin July. Acquisition news from one of our Top 20 companies—that annual issue, coming out in just a few weeks. Novartis has agreed to acquire Myricx Bio, a biotech developing a new class of ADCs.

Another major company, AstraZeneca, signing a multi-year genomics data partnership with Helix. And Boehringer Ingelheim and BioMed X are teaming up on eye health research at the XSeed Labs facility in Ridgefield, Conn.

Elsewhere, Incyte has completed its acquisition of Vega Therapeutics, adding a novel monoclonal antibody to its hematology portfolio. Lonza acquired the rights to Nona Biosciences’ transferrin receptor blood-brain barrier technology.

Bora Pharmaceuticals has wrapped up its acquisition of MacroGenics’ GMP manufacturing operations in Rockville, Md. Codis, meanwhile, is acquiring a facility in the UK from Catalent that will pump up its spray drying capacity. Catalent and Nanoscope, at the same time, are expanding a gene therapy partnership.

Other partnerships … Autolomous and Cellular Origins are expanding the integration of their respective platforms to boost cell therapy manufacturing. OTR Therapeutics and LG Chem are joining forces on development of novel therapies for oncology, originating out of China.

Finally, Evonik is investing $100 million in an API manufacturing hub in Indiana. And the U.S. FDA has selected Fujifilm’s Holly Springs, NC commercial-scale cell culture manufacturing facility for its PreCheck Pilot Program.

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