Immunovant Just Paid $39 Million to Walk Away From Its Own Drug

The charge pushed Immunovant's R&D expenses to $360.9 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, up from $212.9 million the prior year. It's a painful line item. But the alternative, continuing to pour money into a drug with a safety asterisk and two failed pivotal trials, would have been far more expensive.

This is the kind of portfolio triage that's become a survival skill in 2026 biotech. When funding is tighter and investors reward focus over sprawl, companies are learning to cut early and cut decisively. The calculus is simple: every dollar spent on a fading asset is a dollar not spent on a rising one.

The Heir Apparent

Immunovant isn't leaving the FcRn space. It's doubling down, just with a newer, theoretically better molecule called IMVT-1402.

If batoclimab was the prototype, IMVT-1402 is the production model. It hits the same target and delivers deep IgG reduction, but early data suggest it does so without the troublesome albumin and lipid changes that haunted its predecessor. In preclinical head-to-head comparisons, IMVT-1402 matched batoclimab's antibody-lowering power with a cleaner safety profile.

The pipeline is ambitious. Immunovant plans to run IMVT-1402 across roughly 10 autoimmune indications by the end of fiscal year 2026, spanning endocrinology (Graves' disease), neurology (myasthenia gravis, CIDP), rheumatology (difficult-to-treat rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's disease), and dermatology (cutaneous lupus). A pivotal readout in Graves' disease is expected in 2027.

Composition-of-matter patents extend through at least 2043, giving the company a long commercial runway if the drug works. And with approximately $714 million in cash on hand after the batoclimab write-off, Immunovant says it has enough fuel to reach a potential commercial launch in Graves' disease without raising more capital.

The Neighborhood Just Got Crowded

Immunovant isn't operating in a vacuum. The FcRn inhibitor class has matured rapidly, and the competition is fierce.

argenx got there first with efgartigimod (VYVGART), approved for myasthenia gravis back in 2021. It now offers both IV and subcutaneous formulations and is expanding into CIDP, ITP, pemphigus, and half a dozen other autoimmune conditions. Analysts project the franchise could generate north of $8 billion annually by the early 2030s. It's the category king, and everyone else is chasing.

Johnson & Johnson entered the ring with nipocalimab (IMAAVY), which won FDA approval for myasthenia gravis in 2025. J&J is carving out a unique angle: maternal-fetal medicine. The company is developing nipocalimab for conditions like fetal/neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia, where a mother's antibodies attack her baby's platelets. It's a niche that no other FcRn player has seriously pursued, and it gives J&J a differentiation story beyond the crowded autoimmune core.

UCB rounds out the approved players with rozanolixizumab (Rystiggo), also in myasthenia gravis.

For Immunovant, being late to market means the company can't compete on incumbency or brand recognition. It has to compete on profile: a cleaner drug, in indications where the big players haven't fully established themselves. Graves' disease is the strategic beachhead, a large, underserved market where FcRn inhibitors haven't yet been approved.

The $39 Million Bet on Discipline

Wall Street seems to agree that killing batoclimab was the right call. Roivant backed up its confidence with a $349.9 million share purchase at prices well below recent trading levels.

The stock hasn't collapsed. It's held steady in the mid-$20s, suggesting investors view the discontinuation as housekeeping rather than a crisis.

That said, Immunovant remains a clinical-stage company with zero approved products and a lead asset (IMVT-1402) that still needs to prove itself in pivotal trials. The next 18 months will determine whether the company's "best-in-class" narrative holds up against real-world data.

Paying $39 million to kill your own drug sounds painful. But in biotech, the companies that survive aren't the ones that cling to every program; they're the ones that know when to let go and move on. Immunovant just made that bet. Now it has to prove the replacement was worth it.

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