ProBio has entered into an exclusive global licensing agreement with AbTis, a South Korean biotechnology company and subsidiary of Dong-A ST specializing in site-specific conjugation technologies for antibody-drug conjugates.
AbTis will receive exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize a discovery-stage therapeutic antibody asset generated through ProBio's biologics discovery and development capabilities against an oncology target. Building on the antibody asset, AbTis plans to expand its pipeline in bispecific ADCs, leveraging its proprietary AbClick site-specific conjugation platform to advance the asset toward development of a next-generation ADC.
The agreement includes an upfront payment to ProBio, as well as potential development and commercial milestone payments and royalties on future sales. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The AbClick platform is designed to enable controlled, site-specific antibody conjugation, an approach intended to improve the consistency and characteristics of ADCs compared with conventional nonspecific conjugation approaches.
ProBio CEO Allen Guo said the agreement demonstrates the value of the company's strategy to generate differentiated assets that can advance into innovative therapeutic development, not only support partners' programs, and that combining ProBio's biologics discovery capabilities with AbTis' site-specific ADC technology creates the opportunity to accelerate development of a promising oncology asset.
AbTis CEO Dr. Hyungsuk Choi said the licensing agreement marks an important step in advancing the antibody asset toward ADC development, and that the company looks forward to leveraging the AbClick platform and working with ProBio to accelerate the program.