Japan-based Taiho Pharmaceutical has worked with Araris Biotech since 2023 developing antibody-drug conjugates for the oncology space.
Taiho Pharmaceutical has plunked down $400 million in upfront payments to absorb its research partner, the Swiss oncology company Araris Biotech, along with its suite of antibody-drug conjugates, according to an announcement early Monday.
The deal includes an additional $740 million upon the completion of certain milestones.
Araris’ focus is on developing improved antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancer applications. The company doesn’t have a published pipeline of drugs in development, though Araris “is advancing three products for the treatment of hematological and solid tumors,” according to the statement announcing the deal. When Araris raised $24 million in 2022, that money went toward pushing its lead candidate, an ADC for relapsed or refractory diffuse B cell lymphoma, through preclinical research.
“We are confident that the addition of Araris’ knowledge, experience and technology platform in ADC drug discovery, as well as its development pipeline, will lead to further expansion and strengthening of Taiho’s drug discovery capabilities and portfolio,” Taiho President Masayuki Kobayashi said in the announcement.
Taiho and Araris have been working together since November 2023, focusing on ADCs made by Araris against undisclosed targets provided by Taiho. No payments associated with that partnership were announced at the time.
Araris itself has been busy making deals and signing partnerships. Earlier this year, Araris announced a research collaboration with Chugai Pharmaceutical, with a research collaboration and option to license agreement, to develop ADCs against targets provided by Chugai. No upfront money was announced then but the deal came with $780 million of milestone payments plus royalties on net sales. In the past, Araris had bulked out its potential pipeline and technology with deals to acquire a cancer-targeting Nectin-4 antibody from ARS, as well as patents on ADC technology from Innate Pharma.
Taiho’s purchase of Araris adds fuel to the ADC fire that has ignited the biopharma world over the past few years. Johnson & Johnson put down $2 billion to get Ambrx and its ADCs aimed at prostate cancers in January 2024. Ipsen and Foreseen Biotecnology partnered on ADCs in solid tumors to the tune of $1 billion a few months later. Then in early 2025 both Roche and ArriVent spent north of $1 billion to license ADCs, Roche from Innovent and ArriVent with Lepu Biopharma, both based in China.
