Aside from the $2 billion upfront payment, Novartis is also putting up to $1 billion on the line in milestones for Synnovation Therapeutics’ pan-mutant-selective PI3Kα blocker.
Novartis is picking up a breast cancer drug candidate from Delaware’s Synnovation Therapeutics, a move that will help it stay ahead of big pharma peers playing in the PI3Kα arena.
The front-heavy deal, announced in a Friday morning news release, will involve a $2 billion upfront commitment from Novartis to acquire the Synnovation subsidiary Pikavation Therapeutics, which owns the pipeline of PI3Kα programs that Novartis wants. The pharma has also promised up to $1 billion in milestone payments. Terms for royalties were not disclosed in the press announcement.
The centerpiece of Friday’s deal is Synnovation’s PI3Kα inhibitor SNV4818, an orally available drug undergoing Phase 1/2 development for breast cancer and advanced solid tumors. PI3Kα is an enzyme that, according to Shreeram Aradhye, Novartis’ president of Development, “is a well-established driver in HR+/HER2- breast cancer.” Mutations to this gene can lead to worse disease prognosis, Novartis said.
SNV4818 specifically targets mutated PI3Kα in cancer cells while avoiding normal forms of the protein. This sets it apart from other drugs that target PI3Kα, which don’t distinguish between the altered and wild-type versions of the enzyme, Novartis said.
SNV4818’s bias for mutated PI3Kα “has the potential to translate proven biology into improved tolerability and more durable benefit for patients through precision medicine,” Aradhye said.
The Synnovation deal, which Novartis expects to close in the first half of this year, will also give the pharma Pikavation’s other PI3Kα assets, though not much detail about the programs was provided.
Once under the Novartis fold, SNV4818 will complement the pharma’s existing PI3Kα portfolio, currently anchored by Piqray, approved in 2019 as part of a combo regimen with AstraZeneca’s hormone therapy Faslodex for HR+, HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer. The drug, however, has recently been overshadowed by newer therapies including AstraZeneca’s Truqap (approved in 2023) and Roche’s Itovebi (cleared in October 2024), which made $728 million and CHF 113 million (roughly $143.5 million) respectively last year. Novartis didn’t post sales figures for Piqray in 2025.
In January 2025, Eli Lilly entered the already-crowded PI3Kα arena when it fronted $1 billion for Scorpion Therapeutics’ STX-478, a small-molecule blocker of the enzyme. Then drug is in a Phase 3 study for HR+/HER2- breast cancer, with a primary completion date of May 2029.
