SPARK startup Excellergy to be acquired by Novartis
Posted on April 8th, 2026
Excellergy Inc., an allergy therapeutics startup formed out of SPARK at Stanford, will be acquired by Novartis in a deal worth up to $2 billion in upfront and milestone payments.
Excellergy is developing a new class of allergy therapeutics called Effector Cell Response Inhibitors (ECRIs) that target immunoglobulin E (IgE), an antibody involved in allergic reactions. Excellergy is developing ECRIs that not only remove IgE already bound to immune cells, but also intercept and neutralize free IgE and downregulate the IgE receptors themselves to control allergic reactions.
The startup company began as a SPARK project led by Excellergy co-founder Ted Jardetzky, Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University. The team’s SPARK project was aimed at finding novel allergic response inhibitors based on the discovery that IgE can be removed from allergic effector cells without triggering an immune reaction.
Excellergy, launched in 2025, now has its lead molecule Exl-111 in Phase I clinical trials. Read more about Excellergy and the deal here.
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