In a bid to expand its immunology franchise, Equillium has agreed to acquire Bioniz Therapeutics, a privately held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel structured domain peptides. The consideration is comprised of an all-stock upfront payment of approximately 5.7 M Equillium shares issuable to Bioniz stockholders as well as up to US$307.5 M in potential development and sales milestone payments. The deal provides Equillium with an opportunity to focus on Bioniz’s drug development by utilising its in-house drug discovery platform.