Futibatinib

Taiho Pharmaceutical\'s \"significant cancer expertise will support us in turbocharging the clinical development of our potent ADC candidates in hematological and solid tumors,” Araris Biotech\'s CEO said.\n Otsuka’s Taiho Pharmaceutical is paying $400 million upfront to acquire Switzerland’s Araris Biotech and its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) linker platform.The two companies have been working together since November 2023, when Araris agreed to use its AraLinQ platform to develop ADCs aimed at Taiho’s targets of choice. Taiho presumably liked what it saw, as the biotech has now decided to go all-in and buy Araris.The deal will see Taiho hand over $400 million, with Araris’ shareholders potentially in line for a further $740 million in milestone payments, according to a March 17 release.Araris has its origins in Switzerland’s Paul-Scherrer-Institute, before spinning off in 2019. The biotech is focused on designing ADCs that have greater linker solubility, with three preclinical therapies aimed at hematological and solid tumors expected to enter human trials over the course of 2025 and 2026.Araris touts its linker tech as having three benefits over its competitors. Firstly, the attachment site on a specific amino acid within the antibody IgG-Fc framework means the antibody maintains almost the same performance when part of the ADC. Meanwhile, the strong peptide bond connecting the linker antibody to the therapy’s payload results in “exceptional stability in the blood stream and therefore, avoidance of healthy tissue damage,” according to the release. This bond then breaks easily inside a cancer cell.“Araris’ unique ADC technology represents a quantum leap for the ADC field, potentially offering precise payload delivery of multiple mechanisms of action simultaneously to the tumor, with less toxicity,” CEO and co-founder Dragan Grabulovski said. “We are proud to combine with Taiho, our partner since November 2023, whose significant cancer expertise will support us in turbo-charging the clinical development of our potent ADC candidates in hematological and solid tumors.”Taiho is a subsidiary of Japan’s Otsuka and markets a wide range of anticancer drugs in the country. In the U.S., the subsidiary has three FDA-approved products: the colorectal treatment Lonsurf, the bile duct cancer med Lytgobi and the myelodysplastic syndromes treatment Inqovi.Using Araris’ ADC drug tech alongside Taiho’s own small-molecule drug discovery platform Cysteinomix will allow Taiho to “further expand its ongoing development portfolio in the field of oncology,” according to this morning’s release.ADCs have been one of the hottest spaces for dealmaking in recent years, with the likes of AstraZeneca, Roche, Merck & Co. and Ipsen all posting billion-dollar-plus biobucks pacts.

Japan-based Taiho Pharmaceuticals on Monday said it will acquire Switzerlands Araris Biotech and its antibody-drug conjugate technology for $400 million upfront.The two companies have worked together since 2023, when they agreed to use Araris technology to explore and develop new drug candidates aimed at targets chosen by Taiho. The deal announced Monday, which they expect to close in the first half of this year, could hand Araris up to $740 million more if certain milestones are met.Antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, pair tumor-killing toxins with a targeting molecule via a linker. Improvements in this linking technology have helped buoy the field, yielding new treatments and sparking greater investment. Many large pharmaceutical companies, among them AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Merck & Co, have inked multibillion-dollar deals to pad their pipelines with ADC prospects. AstraZeneca, together with its partner Daiichi Sankyo, have arguably had the most success recently with their ADC drugs Enhertu and Datroway.Spun off from the Paul Scherrer Institute six years ago, Araris was funded by 4BIO Capital in 2020 and again in 2022. The biotech touts its AraLinQ technology, which it claims can provide more stable and more potent ADCs. It is developing three candidates for blood and solid tumors, and expects to advance these prospects into clinical testing this year and next.Araris unique ADC technology represents a quantum leap for the ADC field, potentially offering precise payload delivery of multiple mechanisms of action simultaneously to the tumor, with less toxicity, Dragan Grabulovski, CEO and co-founder of Araris, said in a statement.Taiho, a subsidiary of Japans Otsuka, sells several cancer drugs in the U.S: Lytgobi for bile duct cancer, Lonsurf for colorectal cancer and the myelodysplastic syndromes treatment Inqovi. It also markets other anticancer medicines in Japan. '