The companies will use proprietary technology to enable the discovery of peptide-radioisotope conjugates

Ariceum Therapeutics and UCB have announced a research partnership agreement to establish and develop novel systemic targeted radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of solid tumours and immune-related diseases.

An essential part of the collaboration will involve the companies utilising each other’s proprietary technology platforms to enable the discovery of peptide-radioisotope conjugates as treatments for a variety of cancers and immune-related diseases.

In addition, Ariceum will gain access to UCB’s experience in order to identify novel synthetic macrocyclic peptides by incorporating its mRNA-display technology platform, ExtremeDiversity.

Similarly, UCB will benefit from Ariceum’s expertise in the areas of radiochemistry and labelling technology, thereby enhancing its ability to study how this type of technology could lead to the discovery of differentiated products for immune-related diseases. Indeed, the agreement means that each company will have the opportunity to explore multiple targets.

Dhaval Patel, chief scientific officer at UCB, was encouraged the partnership: "The collaboration with Ariceum further enhances our strategic drug discovery capabilities and provides UCB with the opportunity to learn and explore the potential of this modality in our drive to continuously innovate. We look forward to working with Ariceum’s scientists and are eager to leverage the technology platforms and disease expertise at each company.”

Manfred Rüdiger, chief executive officer of Ariceum Therapeutics, reflected: “We are excited about this strategic collaboration between UCB and Ariceum which aims to broaden Ariceum’s pipeline with potentially several new programmes at discovery stage.”

He added: “Through this partnership, Ariceum will have access to a unique library that will be used to screen against targets of interest for oncology for which current targeted approaches have failed, while working with UCB on enabling targeted systemic radiotherapy approaches in other areas of severe diseases.”

Reference：

https://www.pharmatimes.com/news/ariceum_and_ucb_link_up_to_take_on_immune-related_diseases_1491452