DSM Venturing, the corporate venturing unit of Netherlands-based life sciences and materials sciences company Royal DSM, has bought a “minority stake” for an undisclosed amount in Arecor, a spin-out from Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever.
Arecor was spun out of the consumer goods company in 2007 and its corporate venturing unit, Unilever Ventures, was the lead investor in previous financing rounds.
Many proteins, peptides or vaccines are too unstable in liquid form to develop ready-to-use drugs or are unstable at high concentrations and Arecor is collaborating with a number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies to develop differentiated formulations of recombinant proteins, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines medical devices and diagnostics.
Pieter Wolters, managing director of venturing and licensing at DSM, said: “By investing in Arecor, DSM gains access to a potentially game-changing platform that may have a large effect on the bio-pharmaceutical industry.”
He added by email that is was “a fresh cash investment” rather than purchase of stock from Unilever.