UCB buys cell therapy biotech Candid for $2bn upfront
Ken Song, Candid Therapeutics' CEO, previously sold radiopharma startup RayzeBio to BMS for $4.1bn.
Belgian biotech UCB has made its second acquisition of the year, agreeing a front-loaded takeover of US biotech Candid Therapeutics, building its presence in T-cell engager (TCE) therapies for autoimmune diseases.
The deal – which includes an upfront payment of $2 billion with another $200 million in potential milestones – will give UCB a pipeline of four TCE candidates, of which two are in early-stage clinical testing.
News of the acquisition comes just a few weeks after UCB agreed to take control of another US biotech – Neurona Therapeutics – for up to $1.15 billion, adding an off-the-shelf cell therapy in a pair of phase 1/2 clinical trials for focal epilepsies. And just in case its aspirations in cell therapies were in doubt, this year also saw the Belgian biotech license rights to a CD19/CD3 bispecific TCE for B-cell-driven autoimmune diseases from China's Antengene in a $1.1 billion deal.
For San Diego-based Candid, hitching its wagon to UCB means that it has opted not to complete a reverse merger agreement with Rallybio – announced at the start of March – that would have delivered a Nasdaq listing and $505 million in concurrent financing.
There was no mention of Rallybio in Candid's announcement, in which chief executive Ken Song said: "UCB's successful track record in immunology, including development, launch, and commercialisation, will enable the continuation of our clinical programs and help deliver on the potential for our pipeline."
Before setting up Candid in 2024, Song was at the helm of radiopharma startup RayzeBio, which was sold to Bristol Myers Squibb for $4.1 billion in a deal announced at the end of 2023.
That pipeline is led by cizutamig, a bispecific antibody targeting BCMA and CD3 developed by Chinese biotech Vignette Bio, which merged with Candid in 2024. The drug is currently in multiple phase 1 clinical studies across various autoimmune diseases, and has also been tested as a potential treatment for the blood cancer multiple myeloma.
There are plenty of BCMA-directed therapies on the market for myeloma, however, and Candid's drug is being developed for autoantibody-driven autoimmune diseases, such as neuromuscular disorder myasthenia gravis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Following after, and also in phase 1, is CND261, targeting CD20 and CD3, which is licensed from China's Genor Biopharma and is being evaluated for activity in RA and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The third candidate, CND319, is directed at CD19 and CD20 and originated at WuXi Biologics, another Chinese biotech. Candid's final pipeline asset is a BCMA, CD19, and CD3-targeting TCE, CND460, which is in preclinical development.
"We started Candid with the view that T-cell engagers…could yield a step-function improvement in the lives of patients with certain autoimmune diseases," said Song, who expects the deal to close by the early third quarter of 2026.
UCB CEO Jean-Christophe Tellier said that his company views cizutamig as "a potential transformative asset, that complements our existing programmes, and is poised to redefine treatment expectations for severe, underserved immune-mediated diseases, offering the potential to deliver meaningful improvements in patient outcomes and quality of life."
