German biotechnology company ProBioGen has collaborated with Austrian-based enzyme engineering firm Eucodis Bioscience to commercialise antibody drug conjugation (ADC) technology, C-LiNK (CTAT).
As per the agreed terms, ProBioGen will have exclusive rights to commercialise Eucodis’ enzymatic C-terminal linking technology, and to offer it, together with its antibody development services, royalty-free to ADC-developing parties.
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ProBioGen CEO Dr. Wieland Wolf said: "This agreement is an excellent match between Eucodis’ enzyme engineering expertise and ProBioGen’s therapeutic protein-optimising technologies and we look much forward to position C-LiNK and our contract manufacturing services right in the middle of the hot ADC field."
C-LiNK has the ability to covalently link toxins, drugs, or other substances to the C-terminus of an antibody or a recombinant protein, by a one-step enzymatic reaction.
The C-LiNK enzyme targets a short recognition sequence of 3-4 amino acids fused to the C-terminus of the to-be-conjugated protein. It then cleaves this specific sequence and covalently links the drug molecule to the antibody by a transamidation reaction, the company said.
The ADC technology enables adjusting a defined drug-antibody ratio (DAR) and, by modifying the linker, attaching more than one drug per site, or inserting a specific cleavage site, if needed.
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By GlobalDataC-LiNK for ADC creation is either available as separate, royalty-free licence through ProBioGen or in combination with cell line development and manufacturing packages.
ProBioGen chief scientific officer Dr. Volker Sandig said: "This innovative ADC technology, which efficiently attaches any payload enzymatically via a pure peptide linker, as short as two amino acids, blends perfectly into our portfolio of robust cell line / product engineering technologies and manufacturing capabilities.
"The 1-step C-LiNK coupling technology will further open up the development space for ADCs and represents a competitive alternative to other Antibody Drug Conjugate Technologies."
