Araris Biotech Achieves Unicorn Status

(CONNECT) Araris Biotech from Au is taken over in its entirety by Taiho Pharmaceutical. According to its announcement, Araris will receive 400 million dollars from the Tokyo-based company, which focuses on research and development with an emphasis on oncology, as a first step. The agreement also includes further payments amounting to 740 million dollars. This increases the total volume of the transaction to 1.14 million dollars. Araris and Taiho had already started working together in November 2023.

Araris was founded in 2019 by Dr. Philipp Spycher on the basis of research work at the Center for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen. As PSI explains in its own media release entitled "Milestone of superlatives", this company valuation of over 1 billion dollars makes Araris its first unicorn.

The company develops novel antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the targeted treatment of cancer. It produces these ADCs using its proprietary linker technology. In this novel therapeutic approach, cell- and cytotoxic active substances are coupled to antibodies via a compound, a linker, which transports the active substance directly to the tumor cell as a "Trojan horse" and kills it.

The method developed by Araris for binding between antibody and active substance is more efficient and better to produce than previously used constructs, according to the PSI. The company will therefore remain a subsidiary of Taiho and continue its activities in Switzerland.

Spycher, the former CEO and current scientific director of Araris, was reportedly accompanied by the PSI technology transfer team on his path from researcher to entrepreneur and ultimately in founding the company. "Thus," says PSI in the press release, "the acquisition is not only a huge success for Araris Biotech AG - but also for PSI." ce/mm