Araris Biotech AG

AU ZH, Switzerland I January 8, 2025 I Araris Biotech AG (“Araris”), a Swiss oncology biotech company developing next-generation antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), today announced they have entered a Research Collaboration and Option to License Agreement (“RCO”) under which Araris will use its proprietary linker-conjugation platform, AraLinQ™, to generate novel ADCs using antibodies against undisclosed targets provided by Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“Chugai”). “We are excited to enter a collaboration with Chugai Pharmaceutical and look forward to working closely with the Chugai team and apply our ADC technology to develop next-generation ADCs with improved efficacy and tolerability,” said Dr. Dragan Grabulovski, CEO and co-founder of Araris. Dr. Philipp Spycher, CSO and co-founder of Araris added: “This second collaboration with a large pharmaceutical company is a testimony of the attractiveness of our highly differentiated ADC platform and its potential to generate innovative ADCs with excellent pharmacokinetic properties and wide therapeutic index, incorporating dual- or triple-warheads into one step on native antibodies, without any requirement of prior antibody engineering.” Under the terms of the RCO Agreement, Chugai will pay an upfront fee, fund all research activities and after exercising the option be solely responsible for the development, manufacturing and global commercialization activities. Upon achievement of certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones by Chugai after exercising the option, Araris will be eligible for potential milestone payments of approximately USD 780 million, plus royalties on net sales of products. About Araris Biotech AG Araris Biotech is a leading independent company pioneering the future of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and redefining the entire paradigm of targeted cancer therapy and beyond. Araris’ vision is a world without chemotherapy and its proprietary conjugation and groundbreaking multi-payload technology represents a quantum leap forward in ADC design, enabling the transformation of any antibody into an ADC with the goal of better safety and efficacy. By enabling the attachment of multiple, synergistic cancer-fighting payloads to a single antibody in an efficient one-step process, Araris is creating a new generation of smart missiles that deliver the potency of combination chemotherapy in a targeted fashion in order to tackle the persistent challenges of cancer resistance. Araris’ investors include 4BIO Capital, b2venture, Pureos Bioventures, Redalpine, Schroders Capital, VI Partners, Wille AG, Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation and Samsung Ventures. For more information about our science and pipeline, please visit https://www.ararisbiotech.com SOURCE: Araris Biotech

Chugai, a Japanese pharma owned by Roche, is partnering with a small Swiss biotech to work on next-generation antibody-drug conjugates that deliver multiple cytotoxic molecules. Chugai will pay an undisclosed upfront to Araris Biotech and pick up the tab on research activities with the startup, the companies said Wednesday morning. Chugai could dish out up to $780 million in biobucks if it elects to exercise its licensing option with the startup. Araris’ technology allows it to attach more than one cytotoxic payload onto an antibody to “mimic really conventional chemotherapy,” CEO and co-founder Dragan Grabulovski told Endpoints News . Most other ADCs can only attach one payload to an antibody, Grabulovski said. Biocytogen and Acepodia also announced a dual-payload ADC collaboration on Wednesday. ADCs, dubbed by some clinicians as a “fancy chemotherapy,” have become one of the oncology field’s hottest treatment types in recent years. Multiple large pharmas, including Roche , have forged ADC partnerships or acquisitions as the modality has taken regulatory flight. The biotech has raised about $45 million to date, Grabulovski said, including the most recent round, a 2023 investment from Samsung Ventures. Its other investors include 4BIO, b2venture, Pureos Bioventures, redalpine, Schroders Capital, VI Partners, Wille AG and the Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation. Araris plans to raise another financing round, a Series B, in the first half of this year to help bring its internal pipeline into the clinic, the CEO said. He declined to disclose the target size of the upcoming financing. Nearly a dozen other ADC biotechs raised nine-figure funding rounds last year, according to an Endpoints News tally. Its first ADC is a Nectin-4-targeted ADC for bladder, breast, lung, and head and neck cancer. Other biotechs are also in the Nectin-4 space, including FDA-approved Padcev , but Araris is different in that it has three different payloads on its candidate, Grabulovski said. The company plans to file an IND in nine to 12 months, he said. The 15-employee biotech’s second ADC is a NaPi2b -directed ADC for ovarian and lung cancer, the CEO said. That IND is about 15 months away, he added.

Chugai has already overseen the approval of Roche’s Polivy in Japan for lymphoma treatment. Image credit: Shutterstock / Piotr Swat. Chugai Pharmaceutical and Araris Biotech have entered an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)-focused research collaboration and option-to-license agreement worth up to $780m. Under the deal, Swiss oncology biotech Araris will use its ADC platform to generate ADCs using Chugai-provided antibodies against undisclosed targets supplied by Chugai. Japan-headquartered Chugai will oversee the funding of the research and will oversee development, manufacturing and global commercialisation duties if it decides to license a candidate. Araris is lined for up to $780m in milestone payments, as well as royalties on products that reach the market. ADCs have become a promising therapeutic modality in oncology and are one of the fastest-growing areas in cancer drug research. Chugai already has experience in ADCs, overseeing approvals of lymphoma treatment Polivy in Japan, a drug developed by its majority shareholder Roche. However, the pharma company currently does not list ADCs in development according to its drug pipeline . Araris, a spin-off from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and ETH Zurich, has developed linker technology that allows attachment of payloads to ‘off-the-shelf’ antibodies in a single step. The key differentiator of the biotech’s platform is it allows the conjugation of two or three cytotoxic payloads simultaneously. Araris claims its peptide linker technology overcomes limitations in current ADC technologies such as heterogeneity, aggregation in blood, and high costs. Araris CEO Dr Dragan Grabulovski told Pharmaceutical Technology : “A problem of current ADCs is that they carry and administer just one cytotoxic class, and this results in resistance and limited efficacy. Our technology allows these therapies to conjugate two or three or multi-warheads simultaneously. We call these multi-warhead ADCs and they mimic conventional chemotherapy.” Araris’ latest deal follows a transaction in 2023, which saw it enter an ADC collaboration agreement with Japan-based Taiho Pharmaceutical. According to Grabulovski, work with further pharma companies is on the cards: “We are continuing to talk to interested pharma…the goal is to enter into a few selected high-value partnerships.” Along with generating ADCs for partnered companies, Araris is also developing two internal programmes. One is against nectin-four, a target which already has an ADC at market courtesy of Pfizer’s Padcev (enfortumab vedotin), though Grabulovski says Araris’ candidate has three different payloads as a differentiating factor. The second programme is targeting NaPi2b, for which there is no approved ADC on the market. The ADC space has seen many billion-dollar deals as pharma companies look to shore up their pipeline with the emerging modality. Pfizer – who is also researching multi-payload ADCs, acquired Seagen for $43bn in December 2023 while MSD and AbbVie have also completed $10.8bn and $10.1bn deals in recent years.