Qirui Fan, Hu Chen, Jingjie Huang, Lin Zhang, Xudong Dai, Jiawei Lu, Laisen Wang, Yanjie Zhao, Zekun Wang, Ding Wei and Marie Zhu
WuXi XDC (Shanghai), Co. Ltd.
Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) have garnered increasing attention over the past decade. Innovations in antibody development, such as the discovery of new targets and the selection of bispecific antibodies, have demonstrated significant potential in addressing previously untreatable diseases and expanding the therapeutic window beyond what is currently achieved by standard treatments. ADC pipelines built with these new antibodies involve various uncertainties, making it arguably better to use proven conjugation technologies and established payload-linkers to reduce the overall risks. However, clinically validated conjugation methods, such as cysteine and random lysine conjugation, often result in undesirable heterogeneity. Furthermore, the approved topoisomerase inhibitor linker-payloads, like deruxtecan, are proprietary. In addition, some developers, focusing on antibody innovation, lack expertise in conjugation and/or payload-linker capabilities, and starting from scratch could significantly delay the project timeline.
To address these needs, WuXi XDC has built a platform through internal development and external collaboration. This platform includes two parts:
- (1) Conjugation technologies featuring WuXiDARx™, X-LinC, CysLink, and AbClick
- (2) Novel payload-linker technologies