On a cold Tuesday in early January, Amgen quietly made one of the more revealing oncology bets of the new year: it agreed to acquire Oxford-based Dark Blue Therapeutics in a deal valued at up to $840mn.
The headline number is attention-grabbing. The subtext is more interesting.
Dark Blue does not have a drug on the market. Its lead asset, DBT 3757, is still in IND-enabling studies — the final preclinical work needed before human trials. And Amgen has not disclosed how much cash is changing hands upfront.
So what is Amgen really buying?
