The biopharmaceutical industry landscape is undergoing a series of strategic moves, including several major acquisitions focused on expanding capabilities in RNA-based therapies, rare diseases, and metabolic liver conditions. Recently company’s including Bristol Myers Squibb, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca and Novo Nordisk have also announced major M&As.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with Astria Therapeutics, under which BioCryst has agreed to acquire Astria, for cash and stock, which represents an implied value of $13 per share, and upwards of $700 million in enterprise value.¹ The acquisition received unanimously approval by both the BioCryst and Astria boards of directors. The acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter of 2026, and following the closing of the transaction, Jill C. Milne, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Astria Therapeutics, will join the BioCryst board of directors.¹

The acquisition will bring BioCryst Astria’s leading product candidate navenibart, which is an injectable, long-acting, monoclonal antibody inhibitor of plasma kallikrein for hereditary angioedema (HAE) prophylaxis.¹ Navenibart’s potential as a best-in-class clinical profile, along with its highly differentiated every three and six month administration schedule hold potential to offer significant improvements over existing injectable options while also addressing key unmet needs in the HAE patient community.¹

Bristol Myers Squibb

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) announced a definitive agreement in which BMS will acquire Orbital Therapeutics along with its investigational next-generation CAR T-cell therapy OTX-201. Under the terms of the agreement, Orbital is set to receive $1.5 billion in cash from BMS at closing and is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.²

The agreement includes OTX-201, Orbital’s lead RNA immunotherapy preclinical candidate currently in IND-enabling studies. OTX-201 comprises an optimized circular RNA encoding a CD19-targeted CAR for in vivo expression delivered via targeted lipid nanoparticles.² The in vivo approach employs the patient’s body to serve as the manufacturer of CAR T-cells, and holds the potential to offer reduced treatment burden, along with improved accessibility compared to ex vivo CAR T-cell therapies.1 BMS is also set to acquire Orbital’s proprietary RNA platform, that integrates linear and circular RNA engineering, advanced LNP delivery, and AI-driven design generating programmable RNA therapies curated to the specific biology of a wide variety of diseases.

“With the acquisition of Orbital Therapeutics and its next-generation RNA platform, we have an incredible opportunity to make CAR T-cell therapy more efficient and accessible to more patients,” said Lynelle B. Hoch, president, Cell Therapy Organization, BMS. “As a leader in cell therapy, we are uniquely positioned to evaluate multiple different platform approaches to induce immune reset in autoimmune diseases and continue to optimize in vivo technology in clinical development.”

Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk announced it has a entered into a definitive asset purchase and license agreement with Omeros Corporation for the candidate drug zaltenibart (formerly OMS906) in clinical development for rare blood and kidney disorders.³ Under the terms of the agreement, Novo is granted exclusive global rights for the development and commercialization of all indications of zaltenibart. Omeros is eligible to receive upwards of $340 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments, along with potential development and commercial milestones and tiered royalties on net sales, with an estimated total deal value of $2.1 billion.³

“Zaltenibart has a novel mode of action that could offer several advantages over other treatments for complement-mediated diseases,” said Martin Holst Lange, chief scientific officer and executive vice president of research & development at Novo Nordisk. “Novo Nordisk is in a strong position to build on the work done by Omeros to maximise the value of this asset and develop zaltenibart into a differentiated and potentially best-in-class treatment approach for a number of rare blood and kidney disorders.”

AstraZeneca

AstraZenecaentered a multi-target partnership with Algen Biotechnologies accelerating therapeutic treatment options in immunology. Under the agreement, Algen is expected to leverage its AlgenBrain platform to drive preclinical drug discovery, along with AstraZeneca being granted exclusive rights to develop and commercialize therapy solutions for defined targets designated through the partnership.⁴ Algen is set to receive an upfront payment and additional payments from AstraZeneca worth a total value of $555 million upon achievement of specific development, regulatory, and commercial milestones.⁴

“We’re excited to collaborate with AstraZeneca to bring the power of our AI-driven functional genomics platform to decode complex chronic inflammatory conditions for drug discovery,” said Chun-Hao Huang, Ph.D., CEO & co-founder, Algen Biotechnologies. “Together with AstraZeneca’s deep expertise in translational science and clinical development, we aim to uncover new biological insights to accelerate the development of novel therapies alone or in combination to transform patient outcomes.”

Sources

1. BioCryst to Acquire Astria Therapeutics, Strengthening Presence in HAE, Transforming Growth Profile BioCryst Pharmaceuticals October 14, 2025 https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/10/14/3166038/29446/en/BioCryst-to-Acquire-Astria-Therapeutics-Strengthening-Presence-in-HAE-Transforming-Growth-Profile.html
2. Bristol Myers Squibb Enters $1.5 Billion Definitive Agreement Acquiring Orbital Therapeutics Pharmaceutical Executive October 10, 2025 https://www.pharmexec.com/view/bristol-myers-squibb-billion-acquiring-orbital-therapeutics
3. Novo Nordisk and Omeros announce asset purchase and license agreement for Omeros’ clinical-stage MASP-3 inhibitor zaltenibart (OMS906) Novo Nordisk October 15, 2025 https://www.novonordisk.com/content/nncorp/global/en/news-and-media/news-and-ir-materials/news-details.html?id=916434
4. Algen Biotechnologies Announces Multi-Target Partnership with AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Executive October 7, 2025 https://www.pharmexec.com/view/algen-multi-target-partnership-astrazeneca