On Jun. 24, 2026, Antares Therapeutics announce it has entered a collaboration with Novartis that could be worth ​up to about $1.9 billion, aiming to develop therapies ‌for historically hard-to-drug cancer targets.

Antares Therapeutics said it will receive $105 million upfront ​under the agreement with Novartis. The biotech is also ​eligible for up to $1.8 billion in additional ⁠payments across programs, inclusive of option exercise, development, ​regulatory, and commercial milestones.

The company is eligible for tiered ​royalties on global net sales up to the low double-digit range when any medicines developed under the deal reach ​the market. The collaboration will use Antares’ drug discovery ​platform to develop targeted small molecule medicines against oncology targets that ‌have ⁠been considered undruggable.

Antares will lead all research efforts and apply its proprietary discovery engine to a limited number of historically undruggable targets until option exercise. Antares ​Therapeutics added ​it will ⁠continue advancing its own pipeline of cancer medicines alongside the partnership.

Antares’ lead oncology ​program is expected to enter human ​testing in ⁠2026, with several others in earlier stages of lab development. Antares Therapeutics launched in June 2025 as a ⁠spin‑out ​of Scorpion Therapeutics, backed by $177 ​million in funding, after Scorpion sold a drug programme to Eli Lilly ​for up to $2.5 billion.