Taiho Pharmaceutical to acquire ADC partner Araris Biotech

The Japanese pharmaceutical company Taiho Pharmaceutical is set to acquire the Swiss antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) company Araris Biotech for $400 million. Taiho and Araris have been collaborating to design new ADC drugs since late 2023, and the acquisition further solidifies their relationship. Araris will continue to operate as a subsidiary of Taiho at its current headquarters in Zurich.

This deal is the latest in an acquisition pattern that’s been trending in the past few years in which large pharmaceutical companies buy up smaller firms to enhance the buyers’ ADC development programs. Genmab acquired ProfoundBio last year, and in 2023, Eli Lilly and Company acquired Emergence Therapeutics and Pfizer acquired Seagen.

The acquisition gives Taiho the rights to Araris’s proprietary peptide linker technology, AraLinQ. ADCs typically consist of a monoclonal antibody linked to a cytotoxic drug, and the chemistry linking those components can play a key role in an ADC drug’s success. Araris’s small-peptide linkers can form strong, site-specific bonds to off-the-shelf antibodies, creating stable and potent ADCs.

Taiho expects to complete the acquisition in the first half of 2025. And in 2025 and 2026, Araris intends to advance three of its oncology drug candidates to clinical trials.