Unnatural Products

What Unnatural Products does

Unnatural Products (UNP) is a privately held biotech founded in 2017 and headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, that is engineering a new therapeutic modality around synthetic macrocyclic peptides. The company's core offering is the UNP Macrocyclic Peptide Discovery Platform, which combines machine-learning in silico tools with direct-to-biology parallel peptide chemistry in a continuous optimization loop to design and iteratively improve synthetic macrocycles that combine antibody-like target precision with small-molecule oral bioavailability and access both intra- and extracellular disease targets. The platform originated from research conducted in Professor Scott Lokey's lab at UC Santa Cruz and underpins a Targeted Internal Portfolio focused on cardiometabolic, inflammatory, immunological, oncology, and rare disease indications, as well as a growing set of partner-licensed programs with Novartis (cardiovascular, up to $1.8B in deal value), argenx (oral immunology, up to ~$1.5B), BridgeBio (rare disease/oncology), and Merck (oncology, ~$220M).

UNP monetizes through a partnership-driven enterprise GTM motion: it negotiates research collaboration and licensing agreements with major pharmaceutical companies, receiving upfront payments, pre-IND milestones, development/regulatory/commercial milestones, and tiered royalties on net sales, while retaining selected internal programs in cardiometabolic, inflammatory, immunological, and rare disease indications. The company does not sell a packaged product, does not publish product pricing, and has no public API; the platform's ML components and direct-to-biology chemistry are retained as internal trade secret. UNP has raised approximately $83M in cumulative disclosed equity funding across a 2019 seed round, a $32M Series A in December 2023 co-led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Artis Ventures, and a $45M Series B in March 2026 led by The Venture Collective. The company operates with 11-50 employees and is led by co-founders Cameron Pye (CEO) and Joshua Schwochert (CSO), with operating leadership including Simon Bailey (COO and President of R&D), Henry Johnson (VP Medicinal Chemistry and CMC), and Lindsay Young (VP HR).

Name

Unnatural Products

Legal name

Unnatural Products, Inc.

Website

https://unnaturalproducts.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Unnatural Products is a Santa Cruz-based biotech that operates an AI-enhanced macrocyclic peptide drug discovery platform, partnering with large pharmaceutical companies to engineer orally bioavailable synthetic peptide therapeutics against previously undruggable disease targets.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biopharmaceutical Drug Discovery

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836)

akta.pro primary industry

Therapeutic Peptides & Protein/Peptide Biologics (HLAAAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

AI/ML-Enabled Biologic Discovery Platforms (computational design, in silico screening) (HLAAAIAE), Protein Engineering & Directed Evolution Platforms (enzyme/therapeutic protein optimization) (HLAAAIAC)

Keywords

• Macrocyclic peptide therapeutics
• Drug discovery platform
• AI-driven peptide design
• Pharmaceutical licensing
• Undruggable target therapeutics

Headquarters

HQ city

Santa Cruz

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Pharmaceutical Licensing & Collaboration: UNP generates revenue through research collaboration and licensing agreements with major pharmaceutical partners (Novartis, argenx, Merck, BridgeBio). Each deal typically includes upfront payments, pre-IND milestone payments, development/regulatory/commercial milestones, and tiered royalties on net sales. Example: Novartis deal worth up to $100M upfront and pre-IND milestones plus up to $1.7B in development, regulatory, and commercial milestones with tiered royalties.
2. Venture Capital Funding: Capital raised through equity financing rounds including a $32M Series A (Dec 2023) and a $45M Series B (March 2026) to fund R&D, platform development, and pipeline advancement toward clinical development.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Unnatural Products (UNP) operates an AI/ML-enhanced macrocyclic peptide drug discovery platform that combines machine-learning-based in silico tools with direct-to-biology parallel peptide chemistry in a continuous optimization loop. The platform engineers synthetic macrocyclic peptides that combine antibody-like target precision with small-molecule oral bioavailability, addressing both intra- and extracellular disease pathways, and is delivered to large pharmaceutical companies through negotiated research collaboration and licensing agreements, while UNP retains an internal pipeline in cardiometabolic, inflammatory, immunological, and rare disease indications.

Product overview

Unnatural Products (UNP) operates a single integrated macrocyclic peptide drug discovery platform rather than a multi-module SaaS suite. The core UNP Macrocyclic Peptide Discovery Platform couples machine-learning-based in silico tools with direct-to-biology parallel peptide chemistry in a continuous optimization loop that rapidly engineers drug-like synthetic macrocycles. That platform underpins a Targeted Internal Portfolio in cardiometabolic, inflammatory, and immunological diseases and powers four named partner programs: the Novartis Cardiovascular Collaboration, the argenx Multi-Target Oral Immunology Collaboration, the BridgeBio Rare Disease & Oncology Program, and the Merck Oncology Macrocyclic Peptide Collaboration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• UNP Macrocyclic Peptide Discovery Platform A scalable, repeatable drug-discovery platform born out of the UC Santa Cruz Lokey Lab that combines machine-learning in silico tools with direct-to-biology parallel peptide chemistry to design and iteratively optimize synthetic macrocyclic peptides that target both intra- and extracellular disease pathways. Offered to large pharmaceutical partners through research collaboration and licensing agreements.
• Targeted Internal Portfolio UNP's proprietary internal pipeline of macrocyclic peptide therapeutics focused on high-value biology inaccessible to traditional small-molecule approaches, targeting cardiometabolic, inflammatory, and immunological diseases for unmet medical needs.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to $100M upfront and pre-IND milestone payments plus up to $1.7B in development/regulatory/commercial milestones from Novartis cardiovascular licensing deal
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and foundational.

• NovartisflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 February 2026Research collaboration and licensing agreement to develop macrocyclic peptide therapeutics targeting cardiovascular disease. Novartis receives rights to develop and commercialize programs from UNP's AI-guided platform; UNP is eligible for up to $100M in upfront and pre-IND milestone payments plus up to $1.7B in development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties on net sales. Novartis assumes IND-enabling studies, clinical development, manufacturing, and global commercialization.
• argenxcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Multi-target research collaboration worth up to $1.5B to turn UNP's macrocyclic peptides into new oral immunology targets. argenx participates as both a collaborator and an equity investor in UNP's Series B round.
• BridgeBiocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2024BridgeBio exercised its option to license macrocyclic therapeutics from UNP for development in rare diseases and oncology, including optimization of mRNA display against an un-drugged rare disease target.
• MerckcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024$220M macrocyclic peptide deal focused on optimization of an mRNA display hit against a challenging intracellular oncology target. Merck also participates as an investor through the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund.
• Lokey Lab, UC Santa CruzfoundationalStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017Source of UNP's macrocycle platform technology. UNP was founded on macrocycle research conducted in Professor Scott Lokey's lab at UC Santa Cruz, which is described as the field leader in macrocycles. Co-founders Cameron Pye and Joshua Schwochert are UCSC PhD alumni who trained under Lokey.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Bicycle Therapeutics: Bicycle Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech developing bicyclic peptides (Bicycles) as a targeted therapeutic modality, directly comparable to UNP's macrocyclic peptide platform. Both companies target intracellular and extracellular protein-protein interactions with constrained peptides and pursue pharma partnership economics, though Bicycle is further advanced with multiple clinical-stage assets and a larger capital base.
• PeptiDream: PeptiDream is a Japanese macrocyclic peptide discovery platform company that, like UNP, uses specialized display and screening technologies to generate non-natural peptide drug candidates for pharma partners. Both companies operate platform-based discovery models with major pharma partnerships, though PeptiDream is significantly larger with established royalty streams.
• Protagonist Therapeutics: Protagonist Therapeutics develops peptide-based oral and injectable therapeutics, including macrocyclic peptides, for hematology, inflammatory, and rare disease indications. Like UNP, Protagonist targets undruggable biology with constrained peptides and has multiple pharma partnerships, and is a useful clinical-stage comparable for the macrocyclic peptide modality.
• Circle Pharma: Circle Pharma develops macrocyclic peptide therapeutics using a computationally guided discovery platform to address intracellular protein-protein interaction targets. Circle Pharma's modality and target profile closely mirror UNP's, making it one of the most direct comparables in early-stage macrocyclic peptide discovery.

Emerging players

• Arixa Pharmaceuticals: Arixa Pharmaceuticals is developing oral prodrugs of macrocyclic peptides to enable oral bioavailability of otherwise injectable antibiotics and other constrained peptides. While narrower in indication focus, Arixa addresses the same oral macrocyclic peptide thesis that UNP pursues, making it a relevant emerging comparable on oral delivery technology.
• Recursion: Recursion is an AI/ML-enabled drug discovery company that combines high-throughput wet-lab experimentation with machine learning to identify novel therapeutics. Recursion's tech-bio platform model and emphasis on iterative digital-physical optimization provide a broader emerging-player comparable for UNP's ML/wet-lab integration thesis.
• Insitro: Insitro applies machine learning to large-scale biological data to accelerate drug discovery, with a particular focus on combining ML with experimental biology. Although broader in therapeutic area and modality than UNP, Insitro's integration of in silico and wet-lab capabilities is structurally similar to UNP's continuous macrocycle optimization loop.

Broad incumbents

• Schrödinger: Schrödinger operates a computational drug discovery platform that combines physics-based simulation with ML to design small molecules and other therapeutics. While broader in modality than UNP, Schrödinger's platform-plus-pharma-partnership model and AI/ML emphasis make it a relevant incumbent comparable for computational biology-driven discovery companies.
• Amgen: Amgen is a global biopharmaceutical leader with substantial investment in peptide-based and biologic therapeutics, including through its own internal discovery programs and partnerships with macrocyclic peptide companies. As a likely long-term acquirer or large-pharma partner for advanced macrocyclic peptide assets, Amgen represents a relevant incumbent comparable and potential strategic exit.
• Novo Nordisk: Novo Nordisk is a global leader in peptide therapeutics (especially GLP-1 and related peptides) with significant investment in oral peptide delivery technology. Novo's oral peptide R&D program and cardiometabolic focus overlap meaningfully with UNP's target indications, making it a relevant incumbent comparable and a potential strategic partner or acquirer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/unnatural-products

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors17 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Unnatural Products