Araris expands its pipeline towards solid tumor indications

Araris today announced the execution of an asset purchase agreement for the acquisition of ARS Pharmaceutical’s Nectin-4 antibody. The antibody was initially developed as part of an immune stimulating ADC by Silverback Therapeutics prior to its merger with ARS.

Nectin-4 is a tumor-associated antigen overexpressed in a variety of large tumor indications and has been used as a target in ADC development previously. The deal enables Araris to combine its proprietary linker technology with ARS’ GLP-tox ready Nectin-4 antibody, in order to develop targeted ADC therapeutics, with various linker-payloads, for the treatment of solid tumors of high unmet medical need.

“We aim to use this antibody together with our one-step conjugation technology and linker-payload toolbox for the development of next-generation Nectin-4 targeted therapies,” said Philipp Spycher, Ph.D., chief executive officer and co-founder of Araris Biotech. “Nectin-4 is a well validated oncology target but has shown significant on-target/off-tumor toxicity in current ADCs. In preliminary head-to-head studies, we demonstrated our linker technology enables improved efficacy and tolerability compared to existing Nectin-4 therapies, allowing Araris to generate ADCs with an improved therapeutic index. Acquiring this Nectin-4 antibody from ARS is a meaningful step forward for Araris in expanding our pipeline of ADC therapeutics and moving closer to advancing a candidate into clinical development.”

Araris Biotech’s linker platform enables the attachment of any drug payload to ‘off the shelf’ antibodies, without the need for prior antibody engineering. The resulting ADCs have shown very high activity at low doses and an improved therapeutic index compared to FDA-approved ADCs.

(Press release / SK)