At the end of August, Novartis completed the acquisition of Myricx Bio. Two years earlier, Myricx had raised a large Series A. But just a year before that the original investment hypothesis had failed,the company was low on cash, and its future was uncertain. I joined the tiny team to ride the rollercoaster turning a single asset small molecule into an ADC platform company.
Here is what that experience taught me.
1. The original plan is just a hypothesis
Myricx began life developing NMT inhibitors as oral small molecule cancer drugs. These were potent but their therapeutic index limited their potential as standalone drugs. It became clear investors were hesitant, and meanwhile we predicted the market
for ADCs would need new payloads, so Myricx repurposed its chemistry. Myricx started as a technology looking for the right home. Being a
seed investor meant helping the company to find its best application, which required changing the product, expertise, and
development strategy. Although we changed the company, the wealth of knowledge created by the founding team (Ed Tate, Roberto Solari, Andy Bell
and Robin Carr) became a large part of what Novartis ultimately valued.
2. Differentiation must solve a clinical problem
A novel target is scientifically interesting but alone is not enough. It becomes commercially valuable when it addresses a limitation of
the alternatives. For Myricx, the proposition was an orthogonal mechanism of killing cancer cells. But articulating the benefits of this in a way
that resonated with investors took time to finesse. Ultimately, experimentally demonstrating the ability to overcome resistance to
other payloads was key. Novelty gave the reason to investigate; preclinical superiority over the benchmarks gave investors and pharma the reason to care.
3. Changing strategy means changing capability
An ADC company needs more than a potent molecule. Bringing in Chris Martin as Chair, Francesca Zammarchi as CSO and Simon Chivers as toxicologist before the Series A was transformational. They turned ideas into credible data and then an IND package. Myricx reinforced how closely scientific strategy and organisational design are linked. This is also the fun and creative part of early-stage investing. Robin Carr spearheaded the pivot, and I helped shape the strategy and provide an investor’s lens on the pitch.
4. Optimising capital efficiency and risk/reward
Myricx began as a virtual company and preserved capital to give chances to test hypotheses and change course. Once the evidence supported the ADC opportunity, we needed sufficient investment to maximise the advantage and sprint to the clinic.
The Series A financed the evolution from sharing my dinky officein King’s Cross to labs in Canary Wharf, a larger research team, a
proper development organisation, and a Rolls Royce CEO; Mohit Rawat. Had they stayed private they would have raised (a lot) more capital
to expand the pipeline and platform. There was a credible path to building a substantial UK biopharma company. Although part of
me wishes we could have done this, pursuing it would have required considerably more time and capital, dilution and clinical risk. Selling when we did delivered exceptional realised returns to our LPs. Cash returns are required for early-stage VCs to raise fresh funds to back the next generation of companies, and it’s likely we and our co-investors will do some of this with Myricx alumni. As an early-stage investor a key decision is when to preserve capital, when to invest aggressively, when to realise the value you have helped create, and conversely when to turn the taps off.
5. Be deliberate with what you disclose
In 2023, Myricx was a fledgling keen to raise its profile and attract ADC expertise. At the time, disclosure was important for recruitment and fundraising, but there are trade-offs that companies have to make to maintain their edge. With agile Chinese biotechs increasingly able to pursue newly disclosed mechanisms at speed, the interval between revealing an idea and facing credible competition is shrinking. The lesson is to disclose what you need to recruit, finance and partner, while vigorously protecting what gives you an edge.
6. Trust your gut and triple down on a winner
In my view, the biggest limitation to early-stage venture returns is not the high attrition rate, it is failing to concentrate enough capital into the few companies capable of returning a fund. With Myricx, the initial ADC data changed my assessment of the opportunity. Then the conviction that we were on to something special grew with each experiment. A seed-stage investor has a unique information advantage: deep knowledge of the science, personnel, industry feedback, and emerging data – far more than you have for a fresh investment. The challenge is to translate that knowledge into capital allocation: to dramatically increase your exposure when the evidence justifies it, while accepting that risks remain.
