Argenx wants to get in on the macrocyclic peptide action, penning a deal worth $1.5 billion in biobucks with Californian biotech Unnatural Products to hunt down “undruggable” targets.
The deal involves using UNP’s discovery platform to generate “potent, selective and orally available” macrocyclic peptides against a range of undisclosed “undrugguable” targets decided by argenx. UNP will oversee the initial R&D up to the studies required before entering a candidate into the clinic, with argenx then having the option to take the resulting therapies through human trials and onto commercialization.
In return, UNP is receiving an upfront payment, some near-term funding and R&D funding—although UNP’s release didn’t disclose the financial details. Beyond that, the biotech could be in line for up to $1.5 billion through a combination of research, development, regulatory, and commercial milestones combined with option payments.
UNP will also get a slice of the royalties should a drug make it to market. On top of the cash, Amsterdam-based argenx—which markets the autoimmune drug Vyvgart and its subcutaneous follow-on Vyvgart Hytrulo—will be making an equity investment in UNP, according to the July 1 release.
UNP has touted its tech as “the first scalable platform to engineer synthetic macrocycles using AI-guided design, parallel synthesis, and direct-to-biology screening.”
There is a long history of using macrocycle drugs such as the immunosuppressant cyclosporine and the antibiotic erythromycin. However, efforts to systematically develop macrocycles have run into a range of challenges related to pharmacokinetics, cell permeability and oral bioavailability.
For this reason, macrocyclic peptides were being hailed as the “next wave of drug discovery” by Big Pharma Merck & Co.—an early backer of UNP that has since signed its own deal with the biotech—as far back as 2023.
In this morning’s release, UNP’s CEO Cameron Pye, Ph.D., described macrocyclic peptides as a way to “open up a new modality, one that merges the best attributes of biologics and small molecules to drug targets that were once considered out of reach.”
“Argenx has built a world-class engine for immunology innovation, and we’re thrilled to partner with them to advance novel macrocyclic peptide therapeutics for patients with immune disorders,” Pye added.