AVANT VIEW Quarterly Report Q1 2026

Q1 2026 M&A activity reinforced the strategic consolidation thesis around platform technologies, with acquirers willing to pay meaningful premiums for assets that extend into multiomics, cell therapy, QC, and drug delivery manufacturing. Private Equity returned in scale for cash-generative industrial assets.

• Capsugel acquired by Lone Star Funds (~$3B LBO, March 2026) Take-private of the capsule and drug delivery manufacturing leader Lonza Group AG, signals renewed PE conviction in cash-generative life sciences industrials assets
• SomaLogic acquired by Illumina ($425M + up to $75M earnout, Completed January 2026) - Divestiture from Standard BioTools; extends Illumina's multiomics strategy by adding SOMAmer-based proteomics to the NovaSeq X ecosystem

Q1 extended the concentration trend, with a handful of outsized rounds absorbing the majority of capital. AI-enabled platforms, cell therapy manufacturing, and next-generation delivery technologies continued to attract the largest checks.

• Earendil Labs ($787M, March) - Beijing-based AI drug development and high-throughput antibody engineering platform, backed by Dimension, DST Global, 21Vita, and INCE Capital; the quarter's largest life sciences industrials raise globally
• Cellares ($257M Series D, January) - Integrated cell therapy manufacturing platform; led by BlackRock PE Partners and Eclipse Ventures, with Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, and Gates Frontier participating; proceeds to fund global commercial launch of the Cell Shuttle
• Nuclera ($87M Series C, January) - Cambridge-based benchtop protein prototyping system (eProtein Discovery); led by Elevage Medical Technologies and Jonathan Milner; funds to integrate antibody expression and binding validation into the platform
• BreezeBio ($60M Series B, February, $234M post) - Nanoparticle gene therapy delivery platform (NanoGalaxy); Korean-led syndicate including DSC Investment, Yuanta, and Korea Investment Partners; advancing first internal therapeutic programs toward the clinic

AVANT VIEW

Q1 2026 sharpened the pattern that defined the back half of 2025: capital is concentrating, not broadening. VC dollars held roughly flat at ~$2B, with some deal drop overall, meaning the average round is larger and the bar for getting funded at all has risen. M&A told the opposite story, dollar volume increased to $3.6B across a similar number of transactions (20 vs. 21), as strategics and PE proved willing to write substantially larger checks for the right assets.

A number of threads stood out this quarter:

First, cell and gene therapy manufacturing is a clear center of gravity, with Cellares' $257M Series D and BioMérieux's Accellix acquisition both pointing to continued investor and strategic conviction in the category's long-term trajectory.

Second, the geopolitical bifurcation is widening, not narrowing: Earendil Labs' $787M raise, the quarter's largest by a wide margin, reflects continued willingness of Chinese and Asia-focused capital to fund AI-native biotech at scale, even as Western reshoring and export restrictions intensify.

Third, AI is moving from tooling to operating layer in Big Pharma workflows, with a cluster of substantive partnerships this quarter: Novartis/Unnatural Products (up to $100M upfront and $1.7B in milestones for AI-designed macrocyclic peptides), Merck/Mayo Clinic (multimodal clinical and genomic data for IBD, atopic dermatitis, and MS), and BostonGene/Daiichi Sankyo (digital twin analytics for precision ADC development). Pharma is increasingly willing to embed AI platforms into core discovery and development rather than treating them as experimental add-ons.

Fourth, PE is back in life sciences industrials at scale. Lone Star's ~$3B take-private of Capsugel signals renewed appetite for cash-generative drug delivery and manufacturing assets, complementing the strategic consolidation playbook (Illumina/SomaLogic) that continues to play out in tools.

Top Stories

Danaher's $9.9B Bet Signals Confidence in Enabling Infrastructure

Danaher's ~$9.9B acquisition of Masimo reflects continued strategic conviction in diagnostics and patient monitoring as core pillars of modern healthcare infrastructure. Masimo brings advanced non-invasive monitoring technologies with strong clinical adoption, expanding Danaher's ability to integrate real-time data into care delivery and downstream analytics. For investors, this reinforces that large strategics are still willing to deploy significant capital into scaled, revenue-generating platforms that sit at critical junctions of data, diagnostics, and decision-making, directly aligned with AVANT BIO's core thesis.

Lone Star Funds Announces Agreement to Acquire the Capsules & Health Ingredients (CHI) Division of Lonza Group AG

Lone Star Funds' agreement to acquire the Capsules & Health Ingredients division of Lonza Group AG marks a notable strategic shift in the life sciences tools landscape, underscoring continued portfolio optimization among large-scale CDMOs. The divestiture allows Lonza to sharpen its focus on higher-growth, higher-margin biologics and advanced modalities, while carving out a well-established business with strong positioning in drug delivery systems and nutritional ingredients. For investors, the transaction highlights sustained private equity appetite for cash-flowing, infrastructure-like life sciences assets, particularly those tied to essential components of pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Cellares Raises $257M to Scale Automated Manufacturing

Cellares' $257M Series D underscores growing conviction that the future of cell therapy will be defined not just by science, but by manufacturing scalability and automation. The company is building fully integrated, automated "smart factories" designed to standardize and industrialize cell therapy production, addressing one of the sector's most persistent bottlenecks: cost and reproducibility. For investors, this is a clear signal that enabling platforms focused on process automation, infrastructure, and throughput are becoming foundational to unlocking the commercial potential of advanced therapies.

Industry News

AI, TechBio & Discovery Platforms

Boltz Launches with $28M to Expand Access to AI-Driven Drug Discovery

Automata Raises $45M to Build Operating System for AI-Ready Labs

Tamarind Bio Raises $13.6M to Democratize AI Drug Discovery Tools

Manufacturing, CDMO & Infrastructure

Novartis Expands Radioligand Therapy (RTL) Manufacturing Footprint in the U.S.

Cellares Expands Global Smart Factory Network with New European Headquarters

Multiply Labs and AstraZeneca Collaborate on Robotic Cell Therapy Manufacturing

M&A & Strategic Transactions

Abbelight Announces Successful Series B Investment led by AVANT BIO

bioMérieux Acquires Accellix to Strengthen QC in Advanced Therapies

IQVIA Expands into Drug Discovery via Charles River Asset Acquisition

Agilent to Acquire Biocare Medical to Expand Pathology Capabilities

Regulatory & Policy

FDA Increases Flexibility on CMC for CGT Manufacturing Requirements FDA Signals Shift Toward Single-Trial Approvals