Mentioned:
A major biotechnology company is officially deepening their bet on peptides.
What’s happening:
- argenx (NASDAQ: ARGX) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire oral-peptide discovery company Unnatural Products for up to $1.15B USD
By the numbers:
- argenx will pay Unnatural Products $550M USD in cash upfront as part of the acquisition and up to $595M USD on specific regulatory and development milestones
Why it matters:
- This is argenx’s first time buying a peptide company and their only acquisition so far outside of antibodies
Going deeper:
- Unnatural Products develops orally delivery macrocyclic peptides that are built to bind like antibodies but be taken as a pill
- Unnatural Products and argenx previously struck a collaboration partnership to discover and develop oral macrocyclic peptides against multiple hard-to-drug targets that were chosen by argenx
