Cohance to further invest USD 18M to strengthen its ADC strategy

Cohance Lifesciences today announced two proposed transactions to strengthen its Antibody-drug Conjugate (ADC) strategy: an additional investment of USD 13 million in NJ Bio and a controlling investment of USD 5 million in Aruka Bio. Both the transactions will be funded through internal accruals.

Cohance will increase its common-equity ownership in NJ Bio from 56.0% to 67.3%, acquiring the entire holdings of  Priyashri Nayak, and the Jain Family Irrevocable Trust. Dr. Jain will retain 32.7%.

Dr. Jain will continue to lead NJ Bio while also advancing Aruka's pipeline and partnership initiatives.

NJ Bio will remain focused on customer-facing contract research, development and manufacturing services. Closer integration will combine its payload-linker and bioconjugation expertise with Cohance's manufacturing capabilities to support customers end-to-end CRDMO development through commercial supply. This integration is expected to strengthen business performance across the combined platform over time.

Aruka Bio, Inc. is a private biotechnology company based in Princeton, New Jersey, focused on developing next-generation antibody-drug conjugates. Its lead program is currently at the preclinical stage.

Cohance's USD 5 million equity investment will fund the buyout of other existing shareholders and convertible noteholders along with working capital.

Following completion and Dr. Jain's upfront equity grant, Aruka will be owned 65% directly by Cohance, 25% by NJ Bio and 10% by Dr. Jain. These percentages are before further dilution from Dr. Jain's performance-linked equity award.

Aruka will become Cohance's direct subsidiary. The investment consolidates control of Aruka's proprietary ADC platform, positioning it to pursue co-development, licensing and other collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners as its pipeline progresses.

This follows a review of NJ Bio's performance and integration with Cohance since the original investment in December 2024, which identified an opportunity to strengthen commercial alignment between the two businesses as NJ Bio expands its GMP CDMO services and to give dedicated leadership focus to Aruka's novel drug development pipeline.

Completion is expected by the end of September 2026, subject to definitive agreements, applicable approvals and customary closing conditions.