Unnatural Products Raises $45 Million Series B Financing to Advance Macrocyclic Peptide Therapeutics

Financing led by The Venture Collective with participation from Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Artis Ventures, First Spark Ventures, argenx, Droia Ventures and existing investors

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., March 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unnatural Products, a biotech developing orally-delivered macrocyclic peptides to address previously undruggable targets, today announced the closing of a $45 million Series B financing led by The Venture Collective (TVC), with participation from argenx, Droia Ventures and existing investors Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Artis Ventures, and First Spark Ventures.

The funding will support development of the company’s proprietary drug discovery platform and advance its pipeline of macrocyclic peptide therapeutics designed to address historically difficult-to-drug or “undruggable” targets.

Last month, Unnatural Products announced a licensing agreement with Novartis to develop macrocyclic peptide therapeutics for historically undruggable cardiovascular targets, including up to $100 million upfront and up to $1.7 billion in total potential milestones.

“Macrocyclic peptides represent a powerful new therapeutic modality,” said Cameron Pye, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Unnatural Products. “Our platform unlocks the precision of biologics with the delivery advantages of small molecules, enabling us to target complex intracellular pathways that have historically been out of reach. We can also provide oral solutions to targets only currently addressable with costly injectables. This financing allows us to accelerate development of our pipeline and advance our lead programs toward the clinic.”

“Unnatural Products has developed a differentiated platform capable of unlocking new therapeutic opportunities across challenging disease targets,” said Nicholas Shekerdemian, Founding Partner, The Venture Collective. “We believe the company’s approach to engineering synthetic macrocyclic peptides has the potential to create an important new class of medicines, and we are excited to support the team as they expand their pipeline and move programs toward clinical development.”

Unnatural Products has developed an integrated discovery platform capable of repeatedly engineering synthetic macrocyclic peptides at scale. Macrocyclic peptides combine key attributes of both biologics and small molecules, enabling highly selective binding while retaining the potential for cell permeability and oral delivery.

The company’s platform integrates advanced computational design, automated chemistry, and high-throughput biological testing to rapidly move from initial discovery hits to optimized drug candidates. The company is also advancing a pipeline of macrocyclic peptide therapeutics for the treatment of cardiometabolic, inflammatory and immunological diseases.

Unnatural Products has also established collaborations with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including Novartis, Merck, BridgeBio and argenx to apply its macrocyclic platform across multiple therapeutic areas.

About Unnatural Products, Inc.
Unnatural Products, Inc. (UNP), a Santa Cruz, California biotech company, has developed a platform that addresses the complexities of medicinal chemistry in the macrocycle space through a combination of parallel experimentation and machine learning. Founded by macrocycle pioneers whose academic work uncovered how Nature’s macrocycles work, UNP is developing a portfolio of therapeutic macrocycles against high-value and traditionally difficult-to-drug targets. For more information, visit www.unnaturalproducts.com.

For partnering opportunities, email: contact@unnaturalproducts.com.

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