GLOBAL — Chugai Pharmaceutical and Araris Biotech have announced a research collaboration and option-to-license agreement centered on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) valued at up to US$780 million.
This partnership marks a significant step in advancing ADC technology, a promising area in cancer therapy.
Under the agreement, Swiss biotech Araris will utilize its ADC platform to create ADCs using antibodies provided by Chugai.
The antibodies will target undisclosed disease markers identified by the Japan-based pharmaceutical giant.
Chugai will fund the research phase and, should it choose to license a candidate, take charge of the development, manufacturing, and global commercialization of the product.
Araris stands to receive milestone payments totaling up to $780 million, along with royalties from any market-approved products.
The deal reflects the growing interest in ADCs, which are considered one of the fastest-growing sectors in oncology research.
Chugai has experience in ADCs, having overseen the approval of the lymphoma treatment Polivy in Japan, a drug developed by its majority shareholder, Roche.
However, Chugai currently lists no ADCs in development in its pipeline.
Araris, a spin-off from the Paul Scherrer Institute and ETH Zurich, has developed a unique linker technology that efficiently attaches cytotoxic payloads to antibodies in a single step.
A key innovation of this platform is its ability to conjugate two or three different payloads simultaneously, a significant improvement over conventional ADCs that typically deliver only one payload.
This multi-payload capability could address limitations such as resistance and reduced effectiveness often seen in existing ADC therapies.
Araris CEO Dr. Dragan Grabulovski explained that current ADCs’ single-payload design limits them and can lead to resistance.
“Our technology enables multi-warhead ADCs, which mimic the broader impact of traditional chemotherapy,” he said.
This collaboration follows Araris’ 2023 partnership with Taiho Pharmaceutical and signals its ambition to secure additional high-value partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies.
Beyond its partnered projects, Araris is advancing two internal ADC programs: one targeting nectin-4, a market-validated target via Pfizer’s Padcev, and another targeting NaPi2b, which currently has no approved ADC therapies.
The ADC field has seen substantial investment, with Pfizer’s US$43 billion acquisition of Seagen in December 2023 and other major deals by MSD and AbbVie.
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