Argenx agreed on November 9 to acquire Unnatural Products, the Santa Cruz macrocyclic peptide company in which it already held a minority stake, for 550 million dollars in cash upfront plus up to 595 million dollars in development and regulatory milestones, a total potential value of about 1.15 billion dollars, with closing expected by the end of 2026. The deal converts a July 2025 research collaboration, itself worth up to 1.5 billion dollars in potential payments, into ownership of a discovery engine for oral and long acting peptides, including a joint programme on an oral version of the FcRn mechanism behind Vyvgart. It is Argenx’s second large purchase this year, after the roughly 2.2 billion dollar Forte Biosciences acquisition completed in August, and it is funded by the franchise it extends: Vyvgart sales reached 1.72 billion dollars in the third quarter, up 54 percent year over year, and Argenx held 3.7 billion dollars in cash and short term assets at the end of September.
Flagship Pioneering and the Gates Foundation announced on November 12 a joint initiative, Pioneering Global Health and Development, committing 25 million dollars over five years to find and fund programmes for women’s health, agriculture and global health for underserved groups in low and middle income countries inside Flagship’s company creation portfolio. The Gates Foundation has already invested in three Flagship companies, and the partners describe the initiative as a more systematic way to spot further opportunities. In the same BioPharma Dive roundup, Ascidian Therapeutics and Exegenesis Bio agreed to combine Ascidian’s RNA exon editing with Exegenesis’s engineered capsids to deliver RNA editing treatments into multiple tissue types, with no financial terms disclosed, and Immuneering and Astellas Pharma agreed to run two pancreatic cancer trials combining Immuneering’s MEK inhibitor atebimetinib with Astellas’s Claudin 18.2 targeted treatment, one in first line patients alongside chemotherapy and one in previously treated patients, with no ownership rights changing hands.
The American Society of Addiction Medicine this week released the first national clinical guidance, framed as considerations rather than formal guidelines, for recognising and treating withdrawal from medetomidine, the veterinary sedative now widespread as a fentanyl adulterant. First detected in the Philadelphia drug supply in spring 2024 and found in at least 18 states by the end of 2025, medetomidine withdrawal can escalate within hours from nausea and vomiting to severe high blood pressure and fast heart rate, may require intensive care, and is treated in the guidance with clonidine and, where that fails, intravenous dexmedetomidine at doses clinicians describe as far beyond earlier xylazine era practice.
Two leadership changes from November 10 round out the week. Gubra, the Danish peptide and preclinical research company partnered with AbbVie and Boehringer Ingelheim in obesity, removed Markus Rohrwild as chief executive about fourteen months into the job and appointed Chief Financial Officer Kristian Borbos and ventures head Zoë Johnson as co chief executives, stating that the 2030 strategy presented on October 27 is unchanged. In Dallas, OncoNano Medicine made Brett Giroir, the former US Assistant Secretary for Health who had been its chairman and interim chief executive since May, its permanent chief executive, as the clinical stage oncology company advances its polymer based targeted therapies.
Finally, Synchron has paused clinical trials of its second generation brain computer interface, a wireless version of its vein delivered stent device, after a delayed component held up its FDA submission, according to STAT’s account of WIRED’s reporting. The company says the pause is not safety related, is developing a new device, and will eliminate jobs in New York City. It is the first major setback for one of the leading companies racing Neuralink and Precision Neuroscience to connect people with paralysis and ALS to digital devices through brain implants.