NETHERLANDS – Synaffix B.V., a biotechnology company focused on commercializing its clinical-stage platform technology for the development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), has sealed a US$586 million, three-target agreement with Macrogenics Inc.
That sum includes both upfront and milestone payments, and the first program is already in operation., MacroGenics has the option to expand into the second and third programs by March 2023.
MacroGenics will be in charge of the ADCs’ research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization.
Simultaneously, Synaffix will support MacroGenics’ research efforts and be in charge of the production of components related to its proprietary GlycoConnect and HydraSpace technologies, as well as the toxSYN linker-payloads.
Synaffix’s ADC technology will be combined with MacroGenics’ antibody and bispecific DART antibody platform.
Partners in the cancer biotech’s mid- and early-stage pipeline include I-Mab Biopharma, Zai Lab, and Immunogen.
“Bispecifics is obviously a new tool in the arsenal of ADC since it has the potential to reduce toxicities and therefore zoom in more on the cancer cell, which ideally leads to higher efficacy.”
The MacroGenics agreement is the latest in a series of Synaffix collaborations centered on the Dutch biotech’s ADC technology.
According to the CEO, Synaffix wants to be a “one-stop shop” for companies that already have an antibody. The transaction comes just four weeks after Genmab made a US$415 million bet on Synaffix’s ADCs.
Mersana Therapeutics and Synaffix increased their ADC collaboration in November 2021 to a US$1 billion deal, making Genmab far from alone.
Genmab already has an ADC partnership with Seagen, which produced the drug Tivdak (tisotumab vedotin-tftv), which was approved by the FDA in September as a cervical cancer treatment.
ADC Therapeutics is also collaborating with the company. Meanwhile, Synaffix has licensed its technology to ADC Therapeutics, Mersana Therapeutics, Shanghai Miracogen, Innovent Biologics, ProfoundBio, and Kyowa Kirin, are among the other partners.
Mersana also made another agreement recently. Janssen, a division of Johnson & Johnson, will pay the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech US$40 million up front and more than US$1 billion in milestone payments for ADCs targeting three different targets.
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