Unnatural Products Announces $1.5B Oral Macrocyclic Peptide Collaboration with argenx Targeting Undruggable Disease Pathways

July 1,Saint, CaliforniaCruze,Unnatural Products(UNP), aA biotechnology company developing oral macrocyclic peptides to address previously undruggable targets announced a strategic collaboration with argenx, a global immunology company.Multi-target research collaboration to discover and develop oral macrocyclic peptide drugs targeting traditionally "undruggable" disease targets.In December 2023, Unnatural Products (UNP) completed a $32 million Series A financing round. 2024Year collaborated with Merck for $220 million.Unnatural Products (UNP)'s platform addresses the complexity of macrocycle drug chemistry through the combination of parallel experiments and machine learning. UNP's founders are pioneers in the field of macrocycles, and their academic research has unveiled the mechanisms behind how macrocycles function in nature.（$3.475 Billion! AstraZeneca and Unnatural Products Collaborate to Develop Oral Cyclic Peptide Drugs；Just Now! Merck Announces Successful Phase III Clinical Trial of First Oral Cyclopeptide PCSK9 Inhibitor；$493 Million! Merck Introduces Oral Peptide Delivery Technology to Develop Oral Cyclic Peptides）

This collaboration will leverage UNP's proprietary drug discovery platform to generate potent, selective, and orally available macrocyclic peptides against multiple targets of interest identified by arginine. Under the terms of the agreement, UNP will conduct R&D up to Phase I.ND-enablingResearchArgenx will have the exclusive option to develop and commercialize products targeting multiple indications.

Under the terms of the agreement, UNP will receive upfront, near-term payments and R&D funding. UNP is also eligible to receive up to approximately $1.5 billion in potential research, development, regulatory, and commercial milestones and option payments, as well as tiered royalties on net sales. Additionally, argenx will make an equity investment in UNP.

Macrocyclic peptides represent a new frontier in drug development, offering the precision of biologics, the convenience of oral small-molecule administration, and the ability to reach previously inaccessible intracellular targets. UNP has established the first scalable platform using AI-guided design, parallel synthesis, and direct biological screening to design synthetic macrocycles.

Cameron Pye, Ph.D., CEO and Co-founder of Unnatural Products, Inc., said:"Macrocyclic peptides are pioneering a new form of medicine, combining the best attributes of biologics and small molecules with drug targets once thought unreachable. Argenx has built a world-class immunology innovation engine, and we are thrilled to collaborate with them to advance novel macrocyclic peptide therapies for patients with immune system disorders."

UNP's platform combines AI-guided compound design, large-scale parallel synthesis, and direct biological screening to rapidly generate drug-like macrocycles with antibody-like specificity, targeting challenging targets. UNP is building an oral drug pipeline for oncology, immunology, and rare diseases.