FlightTrace @FlightTraceData

$ABBV Following the unusual clustering activity in Boston, three of AbbVie’s four tracked aircraft spent the night in Worcester, while the fourth remained in Boston. Worcester is home to one of AbbVie’s main R&D sites, but this level of fleet activity there is unusual. Our records show just five visits over the previous three years, typically during the same week in April, with no more than one tracked aircraft present at a time. The location is familiar; the concentration of aircraft is a departure from the fleet’s historical pattern, particularly following the repeated arrivals and departures in Boston.

$ABBV presented at Wells Fargo’s healthcare conference in Boston this morning, but the fleet activity around it stands out. 8 arrivals at Logan Airport in the last ~ 24 hours, involving all four tracked aircraft—compared with 16 arrivals at Logan in the previous three years combined. What’s unusual is the clustering: the fleet repeatedly flying in and out of one location away from home base within such a short window. That stands out against AbbVie’s historical behavior across both conference and non-conference weeks. It brings to mind the concentration of activity at Bozeman shortly before the Apogee announcement. Obviously, the known conference in Boston complicates that comparison, but this kind of activity is very unusual for this fleet. Whether anything else follows remains to be seen.

🚨 $NVS All three Novartis jets have been on the ground at Bedford, MA since Sunday. One of eight full-fleet convergences on our record since March 2023. There are a few interesting nuances — The fleet also converged at Bedford, MA from Aug. 24–28, 2025, the same airport during the same week of the year. That offers a straightforward explanation that this may simply be a recurring late-August gathering. But last year's timing is notable for another reason: Novartis was then pursuing an acquisition of Avidity Biosciences. Avidity's subsequent proxy shows that the fleet convergence overlapped a period when Novartis was deep in due diligence matters it wanted resolved before signing. On Aug 28th, the Novartis fleet left Bedford, MA and then on Aug. 29th, per the proxy, Novartis submitted their conditional best and final offer. Avidity called the condition unacceptable and ended discussions -- before both parties reengaged in the following weeks and the deal was announced in late October of 2025. NOTE: None of this establishes a connection. The proxy doesn't provide any locations that week, and the aircraft data cannot close that gap. But the overlap is notable.

$XBI $IBB Corporate aircraft activity at many large biopharma companies typically slows over the summer. This July and August, however, have been unusually active for several. Across these fleets, we’re seeing elevated flight volumes, weekend flying where it is usually absent, fleet convergences, and extended stays in cities rarely visited. Whether this precedes an increase in biopharma M&A over the coming weeks and months remains to be seen. FlightTrace will begin opening to subscribers in the coming weeks. Join the waitlist at flighttrace.co.

$NVS The Novartis aircraft departed Denver (DEN) after ~70 hours on the ground. Second DEN landing on record; the first was 15 days earlier, at 23 hours. Six times in 3.4 years the fleet has logged 70+ hours at a US airport it barely uses. Five were conferences. The sixth was SAN (San Diego, CA), ~86 hours, October 2025. Avidity deal was announced roughly 1.5 weeks later. Observed flight data only. No knowledge of any corporate activity.

$NVS Before July 19th, our records show Novartis had zero Colorado arrivals in 3.4 years of tracking. They just landed in Denver for the second time in 2.5 weeks.

$JNJ 4 of 4 jets have departed from Pittsburgh area after spending roughly 30 hours on the ground.

h/t @seedy19tron for flagging this earlier today. All four $JNJ jets converged in Pittsburgh this morning. They've been to Pittsburgh twice in our record — 1x in 2023 and 1x 2025 — both times a single aircraft. (Our database begins Q1 2023) This is JNJ’s 12th full-fleet convergence away from their home base since Q1 2023. 6 of these 12 convergences fall on the same week every year: the second Monday of June (2024, 2025, 2026) and the second Thursday of March (2024, 2025, 2026). Reads like a standing biannual offsite, but this is just a guess. July is an historically slow month and this would mark JNJ's first 3 jet or 4 jet convergence in July in our database record. Separately, $NVS made its first-ever Pittsburgh visit last week. $KRYS Krystal Biotech is the only commercial-stage biotech headquartered in Pittsburgh to the best of my knowledge -- I don't own it, don't follow it and do not know if these trips are related to interest in $KRYS and have no idea whether it's even a sensible target for either company. Just flagging what I see.

$NVS Novartis's U.S. flying is at an all-time high based on our records, starting Q1 2023. 30 domestic flights in the trailing 30 days, against a median of 8. Two things stand out against the fleet's own history. Breadth: eleven distinct U.S. airports in the window, against a median of six. Novelty: four locations the fleet has no prior record of visiting — Columbus, Denver, Fort Wayne, Pittsburgh. Columbus, OH is a gene therapy manufacturing hub but to my knowledge Novartis has no site there. And not a lot of biotech activity in Pittsburgh -- $KRYS Krystal Biotech one of the few that comes to mind. Q2 earnings landed July 21. Unusual against the fleet's own history. No conclusion to draw, just flagging it.

$NVS jet returned to SFO from Morristown, NJ. Now departing SFO on Thursday at 11A local time after arriving Sunday night.

$NVS Novartis flew Basel → San Francisco nonstop tonight — a Sunday evening in late June. That route is rare: just 4 times in 3+ years, every one between January and February — 3 of them in early January (ostensibly) tied to JPM Healthcare Conference in SF. This fleet is traditionally regimented, which is what makes the breaks worth watching. For years, every Novartis trip to San Diego used Brown Field, a small airport in southern San Diego. Then on Sunday 10/12/25, a jet flew Boston → San Diego International (SAN) — the first SAN landing in 3 years. Two weeks later, Novartis announced its $12B acquisition of San Diego's Avidity Biosciences. Every San Diego trip since has used SAN. Tonight is another break from the pattern.

$MRK Merck's three-jet fleet has just logged its quietest five-week stretch in three years of tracking. 11 flights in the 35 days through July 16 — none observed since July 9. The same window saw 23 flights in 2024 and 33 in 2025. Outside year-end holiday stretches, the previous five-week low was 20. Those December–January lows came with the helicopters slowing sharply too. That pattern hasn't held this time. Merck's three helicopters logged 116 flights over the same stretch — in line with 2024 (123) and 2025 (112) — including 17 this week while the jets logged zero. It's the first time we've seen the jets go this quiet while the helicopters maintained a normal pace. Not an M&A read. Just a very unusual break from historical behavior. Observational data only. Not investment advice.

Interesting re point #2. Debated flagging the data below in light of the Apogee deal, but: $ABBV has flown to San Diego 5 times since early 2023. In that same window: 76 flights into Orange County, presumably the Allergan Aesthetics lane. They're in SoCal constantly, just not San Diego. This week one of their jets visited for the first time in 8 months — 48 hours on the ground, their longest San Diego stay on record. Admittedly much less compelling than the Bozeman fleet activity. But I believe ImmunoGen and Cerevel were negotiated in parallel, so you never know.

$SHEL Shell's corporate flight activity just hit a 3-year high across multiple timeframes — its busiest 21-day stretch on record (88 flights, ~2.4× its normal pace). Earlier peaks seemed to line up with reported/rumored $BP deal speculation. This latest run has no such reporting behind it. Attached: flight counts plotted against those prior rumors only. Research/informational only, not a buy/sell call.

$APGE

🚨 $ABBV AbbVie rarely visit Bozeman, MT. Since Saturday: 14 flights across all 4 jets in and out — 7 arrivals in 4 days. One fleet, one off-network airport, no one else around. The last time their fleet clustered in and out of a random hub like this, the $63B Allergan deal hit a week later. $RVMD back at the table? Maybe something in cardiometabolic ($GPCR $MDGL $VKTX ?) something in neuro? Many solid prospects still out there for the taking...

All three $LLY jets converged in Boston today. Whole-fleet convergence is rare — only a handful of times in three-plus years of tracking. Previous ones have followed seasonal pattens in February or August. It's the first I've seen in June.

@WallStSai There's a lot of really unusual large pharma aircraft activity taking place over the past week, including LLY.