Morphotek Launches ADC Services Business

Morphotek, Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., has launched its Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) Services business based on its REsidue-SPEcific Conjugation Technology (RESPECT) and eribulin-linker toxin platforms. RESPECT is a site-specific conjugation technology that targets select amino acid residues as a way of producing investigational homogeneous ADCs with defined drug-to-antibody ratios. The platform allows for site-specific conjugation of a single cytotoxic payload or two payloads with different mechanisms of action. The platform employs eribulin as one of the cytotoxic payloads along with a proprietary high-throughput screening system that can evaluate multiple ADC products simultaneously for client-desired biophysical properties and target-specific binding.  
 
As part of its services, the eribulin-linker payload is offered as an option to develop investigational ADCs using traditional bioconjugation for companies interested in developing next-generation formats of their own antibodies.
 
"Decades of expertise in antibody engineering and clinical development of biologics-based therapies, along with preclinical studies showing the potential of our new ADC formats, has enabled us to align these assets into a client-focused ADC business offering end-to-end services," said Nicholas Nicolaides, president and chief executive officer of Morphotek.  "We believe this new service provides an opportunity to build a win-win strategy by increasing internal value through leveraging our proprietary platforms and development know-how, and customer value by developing ADCs to their strategic targets."