PolyTherics Limited has announced that it has formed a research collaboration with Spirogen Limited to develop antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that combine PolyTherics’ proprietary site-specific conjugation chemistry with Spirogen’s highly potent novel cytotoxic drugs to produce novel ADCs for the treatment of cancer.

Under the collaboration, the two companies will produce the ADCs using PolyTherics’ proprietary TheraPEG™ linker technology to site-specifically conjugate Spirogen’s potent pyrrolobenzodiazepines (“PBDs”) cytotoxic agents - known as warheads - to antibodies and antibody fragments.

The companies will then test the potency of the resulting ADCs in preclinical models of cancer.

PolyTherics and Spirogen will jointly seek partners to develop the most promising ADC candidates that arise from the collaboration.

John Burt, CEO of PolyTherics, commented, “This is an exciting opportunity to combine our validated conjugation technology with Spirogen’s potentially best-in-class PBD warheads. The novel antibody-drug conjugate reagents that we develop will have broad application for the development of ADCs as new cancer therapies.”

Chris Martin, CEO of Spirogen, added, “We believe that ADCs will represent a significant medical breakthrough in cancer therapy over the coming decade, and that PolyTherics’ TheraPEG™ conjugation technology will broaden the applications where our PBD warheads and linkers can create highly potent potentially market-leading ADC candidates.”