Novartis signed a discovery and licensing agreement with Unnatural Products (UNP) to deploy UNP’s AI-guided macrocyclic peptide platform against cardiovascular disease targets. Financial terms disclosed include around $100 million in upfront and early milestones, with the partnership potentially worth up to roughly $1.7–$1.8 billion in total consideration. UNP combines computational design, massively parallel synthesis and direct‑to‑biology screening to generate oral and injectable macrocycles aimed at previously intractable targets. Novartis said the collaboration gives it access to an emerging modality that blends biologic‑like selectivity with small‑molecule properties, accelerating efforts to expand its cardiovascular pipeline.