#104 - Cockroach commandos, psychedelic solutions and mousey miracles
The coffee break biotech roundup, by SomX.
Hello, it’s been a rather buggy week in the world of biotech.
This week, Novartis gets the chequebook out for up-and-coming British biotech Myricx Bio; Boston’s biotech hub hits the skids as new contenders emerge; depressed hippies everywhere are finally vindicated as psychedelics prove their mettle against treatment-resistant depression, asthmatic mice breathe easier thanks to a nifty new allergen treatment, and cyborg cockroaches don tiny diving suits to explore disaster zones.
It turns out these bugs have more to offer than getting your local kebab shop shut down.
Dodo
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Discover 🔍
🇨🇭 Swiss drugmaker Novartis buys UK biotech firm in $1.5bn deal (The Times): Myricx Bio, an Imperial College and Francis Crick Institute spinout, has been snapped up by Novartis, marking one of the UK biotech sector’s cleaner pre-clinical exits. Founded in 2019, the company develops next-generation payloads – the warhead, in ADC parlance – designed to deliver a targeted cancer-killing payload directly into tumours. Its NMT inhibitor platform tackles the resistance and toxicity that limit current ADCs.
Our take: Myricx’s sale at a pre-clinical stage says rather a lot about the limits of Europe’s biotech scaling model. The company had credible backing, a £90 million Series A led by Novo Holdings and Abingworth, a high-quality syndicate by any standard. Yet even with that support behind it, the exit came before any clinical data emerged, precisely where valuations tend to inflect most sharply.
🏙️ Beyond Boston: Unlikely cities stake biotech claims (BiopharmaDive): Lancaster County is perhaps better known for horse-drawn buggies and Amish country than antibody manufacturing, but a new wave of unexpected US life sciences hubs are gaining ground. Lancaster is leaning on GSK’s $800 million expansion, Oklahoma City on federal funding, and Las Vegas on lower operating costs and a fresh 120,000 sq ft incubator from Roseman University of Health Sciences.
Our take: These emerging hubs are being catalysed by coordinated public investment rather than traditional venture capital, from Pennsylvania’s backing of GSK and Eurofins to federal funding pouring into Oklahoma. This signals a different model of biotech cluster formation, where government-led industrial strategy plays a larger role in de-risking infrastructure and early ecosystem buildout, particularly outside established VC-heavy regions.
🧠 Compass’ psilocybin depression drug works for the long haul (BioSpace): Compass Pathways has strengthened its case for the first FDA-approved psilocybin therapy, with Phase 3 data showing rapid and durable benefits in treatment-resistant depression. In the latest trial, 39% of patients saw meaningful improvement within 6 weeks of 2 doses, most of those gains holding through 6 months, and nearly 30% of initial responders later reaching full remission. Psychedelics could be genuine challengers to staples like SSRIs.
Our take: If approved, COMP360 may not be constrained by patient demand or clinical efficacy, but by the sheer logistics of delivery. Unlike pills, psychedelic therapies require hours-long supervised sessions, trained staff, and specialised settings. That makes delivery inherently capacity-limited. A single patient can occupy a room and a clinician for most of a working day, sharply constraining how many patients a site can treat.
🐭 Chimeric allergen receptor treg cells suppress allergic asthma in mice (GEN): Researchers in Lausanne have borrowed the architecture of cancer immunotherapy and pointed it in the opposite direction, engineering immune cells to switch off allergic responses rather than switch them on. Regulatory T cells equipped with chimeric allergen receptors suppressed and even prevented asthma symptoms in mice. By precisely targeting the allergen, the engineered Tregs restore immune tolerance rather than simply turning the whole system down.
Our take: Most allergy treatments either block parts of the inflammatory cascade or gradually expose the body to an allergen until the immune response becomes less reactive. By arming Tregs with receptors that recognise birch pollen, the therapy is designed to intervene only when the relevant allergen appears. If this approach translates, it could shift allergy treatment away from blanket suppression and towards something closer to programmable tolerance.
And finally…
🪳 World’s first ‘diving suits’ for cockroaches (The Naked Scientist): The cockroach – evolution’s most resilient nuisance – has now been kitted out with a 3D-printed scuba backpack that generates oxygen from hydrogen peroxide, extending its underwater survival from a few minutes to up to three hours. Scientists in Singapore steer the insects remotely by stimulating their nervous systems, sending them through tight, debris-filled spaces in disaster zones where conventional robots cannot follow.
Our take: Sending a robot into a flooded tunnel raises no particular ethical questions. Sending a living animal – surgically modified, remotely steered, dispatched into a potentially lethal environment – is rather a different matter. The researchers frame the cockroach as a platform, but it remains an organism, and existing animal research frameworks were not written with this in mind. Nobody has quite decided what it is, which means nobody has decided who is responsible for it.
Tune in 🎧
🧑🔬 The first PROTAC is here. What comes next in protein degradation? President and CEO of Arvinas explains how PROTAC protein degradation uses the body’s own disposal system to eliminate disease-causing proteins, and why the first Phase 3 success for a PROTAC could mark a new chapter in drug design.
🤑 BoB@BIO: Biotech investing and deals: Executive Partner, Private Equity, at Sofinnova Maha Radhakrishnan discusses the move from pharma to investing, what makes late-stage asset deals work, and how China-originated programmes are reshaping development timelines.
🥼 Hosts chat with Riley Elmer: Tips and tricks to improving scientific presentations: This week’s guest shares her practical advice for making scientific presentations clearer, more engaging, and more memorable, from building better slides and tailoring complex research for different audiences.
Apply ✍️
💰 Manager, BioPharma Business Development (EMEA), Foundation Medicine: Interested in helping pharma and biotech partners make better use of genomic insights? You’ll drive account growth, shape biopharma partnerships, and connect partners with FMI’s NGS assays.
🧪 Business Development Manager (Pharma/Biotech), Biosynth: Passionate about turning pharma and biotech prospects into long-term clients? You’ll lead sales from prospecting to close, build industry networks, negotiate contracts, and work with marketing and BD teams to spot new opportunities.
💂 London Account Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific: Keen on helping leading research institutions advance their science? You’ll manage key accounts including the Francis Crick, QMUL and Southampton University, build lasting customer relationships, and grow revenue through consultative selling.
RSVP 📆
💡 13.06 | BioTech Startups, Investors, Innovators & Professionals Networking Event| London, UK: An evening networking event for biotech founders, investors, researchers and industry professionals, with one-minute elevator pitches, investor access and opportunities to build strategic partnerships across pharma, biotech and life sciences.
🤑 14.06 | Bionow Business Pitching 2026 | Warrington, UK: A morning event bringing together innovative businesses, investors and collaborators from across the North of England, with 90-second pitches, emerging technology showcases and opportunities to build new sector partnerships.
🩸 16.07 | MedTech Careers AHEAD 2026 Edition | London, UK: A careers-focused medtech event at the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering, bringing together students, early-career professionals and sector voices to explore routes into medical technology and healthcare innovation.
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We’re SomX, a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.