Amgen has entered into an agreement to acquire Dark Blue Therapeutics in a deal valued at up to $840 million. The transaction grants Amgen full rights to Dark Blue’s lead preclinical candidate, DBT-3757, a targeted protein degrader designed to eliminate mutant FLT3 in acute myeloid leukemia and the BCR-ABL fusion protein in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This acquisition enhances Amgen’s early-stage cancer medicine strategy by integrating Dark Blue’s chemistry and biology platforms into its existing targeted protein degradation research. With the addition of DBT-3757, Amgen expects to advance at least two new IND-enabling programs by 2027, reinforcing its commitment to delivering differentiated therapies for high-unmet-need hematologic malignancies.

In a separate collaboration, Amgen has signed an exclusive global license agreement with DISCO Pharmaceuticals to develop therapies against a newly identified cancer cell surface target discovered using DISCO’s proprietary surfaceome mapping platform. Under the terms of the deal, DISCO is eligible to receive up to $618 million in milestone payments plus tiered royalties on net sales. Amgen gains worldwide rights to develop bispecific antibody-drug conjugates and T-cell engagers directed at this target, expanding its oncology pipeline into solid tumor indications such as small cell lung cancer and microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer. This partnership leverages DISCO’s advanced cell-surface proteomics and protein community mapping to uncover target pairs inaccessible by traditional methods, positioning Amgen to accelerate clinical entry of next-generation immuno-oncology candidates.