ETH’s Paul Scherrer Institute has launched Araris Biotech to deliver production technology for site-specific ADCs that enable them to be used without being engineered from each patient.
Paul Scherrer Institute, part of the Domain of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Domain) system, has unveiled Switzerland-based biotech company Araris Biotech to commercialise enhanced antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
Founded in January 2019, Araris Biotech is working on a technology for producing site-specific ADCs, antibodies chained to a biologically-active cytotoxic compound to treat diseases including cancer.
Site-specific ADCs generally offer better dosage tolerability for the patient than conventional ADCs, which are prone to adverse side-effects from the cytotoxic component.
Araris’s production process will create ADCs that do not subsequently require specific antibody or cell-line engineering for application, such that the antibodies can be used directly “off-the-shelf”.
The spinout hopes to enable biotech developers to revive antibody programs that proved ineffectual during pre-clinical or clinical testing, allowing them to achieve greater potency with its site-specific ADC technology.
Araris is also targeting manufacturers of existing antibody drugs nearing the end of patent protection that could achieve extended exclusivity for the assets if attached to new compounds.