Lenny Van Steenhuyse

Principal at biotech VC Droia. All-round biotech nerd.

[BioSignal @BioSignal]

Biotech M&A is broken. The historical playbook was simple: a startup creates an incredible asset, and a multinational pharma company (MNC) swallows them whole to run the commercial launch. But the top-tier biotechs are now refusing to be acquired—and they are poaching Big Pharma's crown jewels to build their own global empires.

Earlier this year, Merck ($MRK) offered a massive $32B to acquire Revolution Medicines ($RVMD) for their pan-RAS oncology pipeline. Revolution flatly rejected the buyout.

Now, the story gets wild. Not only did Revolution refuse the acquisition, but they just poached Thomas Lampron—Merck’s Global VP of Oncology Marketing and one of the core architects behind Keytruda’s historic commercial scale-up.

The move signals that the pan-RAS field is officially transitioning from an early-stage science story into aggressive commercial execution. At ASCO 2026, Revolution's lead asset daraxonrasib demonstrated a median Overall Survival (mOS) of 13.2 months vs 6.7 months for chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer—effectively doubling survival in a historical regulatory graveyard.

Instead of passing the baton to an MNC, Revolution is keeping the economics and assembling a heavy-hitting commercial team to launch daraxonrasib independently. For Merck, losing the acquisition target was a strategic setback; losing their elite oncology marketing talent to that same target is a brutal validation of changing power dynamics.

This is the pipeline to watch. 🧵

$RVMD $MRK $AMGN $BMY $XBI $IBB

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@ohadhammer Blina isn’t exactly an optimized iteration of what we see in the field right now, plenty of room for improvement across target, safety, PK, depletion depth etc.

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@plainyogurt21 They did spend an obscene amount of money on them, I guess that's what it buys you.

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@NotGenentech @ohadhammer From a cleanliness perspective? Because it doesn't seem to internalize that well.

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

The insistence on absurd and public flattery for the leader is a hallmark of authoritarianism. This kind of enforced sycophancy is not just ridiculous - it is dangerous. https://t.co/ZH6I1wO6vv via @ft

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@Andre_AGTC Could you elaborate on your $ 15 target? At that point valuation would land below cash, so you feel the current assets require way more cash still for derisking I guess.

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

LIFE’S CERTAINTIES:
Roses are red
Eric Tokat has a mission
Centerview partners
Acted as financial advisor to this acquisition

[AbbVie @abbvie]

JUST IN: We’ve signed a definitive agreement to acquire @capstantx, underscoring our commitment to drive scientific innovation and transform patient care in #immunology. Learn more: https://t.co/2ZGedtiVLe

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@semodough Practice-changing data, yet market doesn't care.

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@onco_park That is super interesting, thanks for sharing. I wonder what this means for EGFR x cMET bispecific ADCs in either mutational setting. Would induced proximity also influence the mechanism of internalization?

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

Is this $ARGX starting to be valued as a pharma company rather than a development biotech? Are investors now looking at EPS & PE multiples rather than pipeline promise?
In any case, it's a momentous occasion to see them transition into profitability, what a behemoth of a company

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@Prof_Oak_ Hard to hit that like button harder

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

Did the market expect $DYN to radically outperform $RNA? DM1 drug candidates look pretty similar and suddenly Dyne is heading into registrational cohort with 32 pts on 6M endpoint vs Avidity's 150 ph3 trial on 30w endpt. Time to market looks very close.

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@ohadhammer And yet Otezla still doing > 2bn/yr. What happens when efficacy is cranked up drastically with manageable safety? IMO, these markets are so large that there will always be room for some uptake of orals, while perhaps not largest market share.

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

$LBPH fun fact on Longboard M&A: Lundbeck CEO Charl van Zyl was previously EVP neurology at UCB when they bought Zogenix for Fintepla, the very molecule bexicaserin is trying to improve on.

[Professor Oak @Prof_Oak_]

Presumably this is a mechanistic manifestation of long-term exposure, so 601 (next-gen Vox) likely done too

Probably a win for orthogonal / polymerization-independent MOAs like $AGIO and $FULC, but will patients actually take them?

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@JacobPlieth @A_May_MD Seems to me like a highly active drug with acceptable tolerability in a challenging setting. Also activity on C797S, while this isn't the case for firmo.

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@jq1234t @Sanctuary_Bio SG as an acquired asset can be considered ok, but I find that price quite difficult to wrap my head around. Challenging to see ROI on that for $GILD shareholders.

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@PDRennert Great overview

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

While many people focus on the set of FRa ADCs with today's acquisition of ProfoundBio by $GMAB, I would argue raludotatug deruxtecan is another formidable competitor in the ovarian cancer field.

[Merck @Merck]

We’re committed to advancing research in #ovariancancer. Today, we announced the initiation of a Phase 2/3 trial for the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer in collaboration with @DaiichiSankyoUS. Learn more: https://t.co/KjP0PgFDvh

[Lenny Van Steenhuyse @LennyVSt]

@BertrandBio @JacobPlieth The idea of bispecific ADCs continues to intrigue and could be really exciting. On the Hexabody tech, would imagine it likely that toxin conjugation would interfere with complement recruitment and internalization. If HexElect could be ADC-ified, that would be huge.