Synaffix B.V. (Synaffix), announces that Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd., a global specialty pharmaceutical company that strives to create new value through the pursuit of advances in life sciences and technologies, has expanded the license agreement with Synaffix (announced in August 2021) by adding a third ADC target to its research evaluation and development efforts under this deal. In addition it exercised its option to take exclusive development and commercialization rights for an undisclosed ADC target under the terms of this agreement. This follows a successful initial research collaboration between the companies whereby Kyowa Kirin has demonstrated a highly competitive preclinical therapeutic index for its lead program under this collaboration, prepared from a Kyowa Kirin antibody using Synaffix's ADC technology.

The technology licensed from Synaffix include GlycoConnect™, HydraSpace™, and multiple toxSYN™ linker-payloads, which allow for the drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) to be tailored to 1, 2 or 4 to optimize the therapeutic index of the ADC. Under the terms of the amended license agreement, Synaffix will receive an immediate payment of $5 million and is eligible to receive total potential payments for the first ADC program alone of up to $171m plus royalties on commercial sales. Synaffix' proprietary ADC technology platform consists of GlycoConnect™, HydraSpace™ and toxSYN™ technologies.

Both GlycoConnect™ and HydraSpace™ are clinical-stage technologies that enable best-in-class ADCs with significantly enhanced efficacy and tolerability. GlycoConnect™ is a conjugation technology that exploits the native antibody glycan for site-specific and stable payload attachment and is tunable to DAR1, DAR2 or DAR4 formats. HydraSpace™ is a compact and highly polar spacer technology that is designed to further enhance therapeutic index, particularly with hydrophobic payloads.

toxSYN™ is a linker-payload platform that spans key, validated MOAs for ADC product development, including SYNtecan E™ and SYNeamicin G™, among other linker-payloads. The combination of these three technologies provides developers with a "one stop" and easy-to-use ADC technology platform, allowing any antibody developer to develop its own proprietary ADC and any ADC developer to expand its pipeline further and increase its competitive position.