UCB and Ariceum Therapeutics sign a Strategic Research Collaboration to Discover New Modalities for the Treatment of Immune-related Diseases and Cancer

UCB and Ariceum Therapeutics sign a Strategic Research Collaboration to Discover New Modalities for the Treatment of Immune-related Diseases and Cancer

• UCB’s expertise in macrocyclic peptide discovery, using its proprietary mRNA-display platform, ExtremeDiversity™, will aid Ariceum’s discovery of treatments for solid tumors
• Ariceum’s expertise in radiopharmaceuticals and labelling technology will aid UCB’s discovery of treatments for immune-related diseases
• Potential to expand Ariceum’s pipeline with three new programs at discovery stage

Berlin, Germany, and Brussels, Belgium, 11 May 2023 – Ariceum Therapeutics (Ariceum), a private biotech company developing radiopharmaceutical products for the diagnosis and treatment of certain hard-to-treat cancers, and UCB (EURONEXT BRUSSELS: UCB), a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced an exclusive, strategic research collaboration agreement to identify and develop novel systemic targeted radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of solid tumors and immune-related diseases.

Under the terms of the research collaboration, UCB and Ariceum will utilize each other’s proprietary technology platforms to enable the discovery of peptide-radioisotope conjugates as potential therapeutics for immune-related diseases and cancer. Ariceum will also gain access to UCB’s expertise to discover novel synthetic macrocyclic peptides using its mRNA-display technology platform, ExtremeDiversity™. UCB will benefit from Ariceum’s expertise in the field of radiochemistry and labelling technology to enhance its ability to explore how this technology might lead to the discovery of highly differentiated products for immune-related diseases. Both companies will have the opportunity to explore several targets under this research collaboration.

Manfred Rüdiger, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Ariceum Therapeutics, said: “We are excited about this strategic collaboration between UCB and Ariceum which aims to broaden Ariceum’s pipeline with potentially several new programs at discovery stage.  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.”

Dhaval Patel, Chief Scientific Officer of UCB, commented: "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.”