Founded as spin-off company from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and ETH Zurich, Araris Biotech has developed AraLinQ, a proprietary antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology that enables best-in-class ADCs with significantly enhanced efficacy and tolerability. The ADC technology can be applied directly to any existing off-the-shelf antibody without engineering and enables the generation of single or multi-payload ADCs from off-the-shelf linker-payloads. AraLinQ exploits native Q295 for site-specific payload attachment in one-step and has consistently shown to result in ADCs with an antibody-like exposure profile even at high drug-load without the use of any polymeric solubility enhancers.
Araris has entered into an agreement with Innate Pharma to acquire their IP portfolio of transglutaminase patents for the generation of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). The France-based oncology-focused biotech company, is dedicated to improving treatment and clinical outcomes for patients through therapeutic antibodies that harness the immune system to fight cancer. Just recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the Innate’s investigational new drug (IND) application to initiate a Phase 1 clinical study of IPH4502, its novel and differentiated topoisomerase I inhibitor antibody drug conjugate (ADC) targeting Nectin-4 in solid tumors.
The newly acquired patents encompass a broad range of intellectual property that cover use of bacterial transglutaminase in conjugating various linker-payloads to antibodies.
“We are excited to acquire Innate’s portfolio of transglutaminase related patents, as this transaction further positions Araris as a leader in the development of ADCs using transglutaminase conjugation technology,” said Dragan Grabulovski, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Araris. “We look forward to continuing to develop next-generation site-specific ADCs and believe this acquisition not only expands our intellectual property portfolio, but also strengthens our competitive edge.”
(Press release/RAN)