Arvinas

Arvinas

Arvinas was founded in 2013 by Dr. Craig Crews, the Yale scientist whose laboratory invented PROTAC (PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera) technology. The company translates Crews' academic discovery into clinical-stage medicines, targeting proteins that conventional inhibitors cannot reach. John Houston, a veteran of Bristol-Myers Squibb, has led the company as CEO from its earliest days, steering the transition from a university spinout to a publicly traded biotechnology firm on the Nasdaq. The company's pipeline is built entirely around targeted protein degradation. Its lead asset, vepdegestrant, is an oral PROTAC estrogen receptor degrader in Phase 3 trials for ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer, partnered globally with Pfizer under a 2021 deal that included a $650 million upfront payment and up to $1.4 billion in milestones (per the firm's official communications). A second program, bavdegalutamide, targets the androgen receptor for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and has produced Phase 2 data demonstrating tumor regression in heavily pre-treated patients. Beyond oncology, Bayer paid $115 million upfront in 2024 to license an early-stage PROTAC program targeting agricultural applications, creating a new offshoot company called Oerth Bio for the agricultural technology work. The company's clinical programs are supported by a partnership model that external investors track closely. Pfizer's 2021 commitment, Bayer's agricultural PROTAC venture, and earlier discovery-stage collaborations with Genentech and Pfizer each validate the technology platform. Arvinas employs roughly 450 people, with operations centered at its headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut — steps from the Yale labs where the core science originated. In April 2025, the company presented updated Phase 3 data for vepdegestrant in combination with Pfizer's Ibrance at an AACR plenary session, reporting a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival for the intent-to-treat population. The structural differentiator for Arvinas is its biological mechanism, not its balance sheet. PROTACs are bifunctional molecules that simultaneously bind a target protein and an E3 ubiquitin ligase, triggering the cell's natural proteasome system to destroy the target entirely. Unlike traditional inhibitors, which leave a functional protein that can mutate around the drug, degrader molecules remove the protein outright. This creates a therapeutic angle on proteins previously deemed "undruggable" — the key premise investors are underwriting as the Phase 3 readouts approach and regulatory filings are expected as early as 2026.