Lonza entered into two new collaborations with McSAF and Cristal Therapeutics to expand its bioconjugates offering.
The collaborations are geared to enable the integration of two novel conjugation platforms, McSAF’s Inside® and Cristal Therapeutic’s CliCr®, into the Lonza Bioconjugation Toolbox, which comprises a range of tailored solutions for the technology selection, development, and manufacturing of bioconjugates to advance the development of bioconjugate-based therapies.
Cristal Therapeutic’s CliCr technology is a class of bioorthogonal reagents that supports the generation of a range of bioconjugates. The CliCr technology relies on metal-free click chemistry and provides improved yields and broad applicability compatible with biochemically relevant reaction conditions, said Werner Cautreels, PhD, CEO, Cristal Therapeutics.
McSAF’S Inside technology allows for the generation of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) from native antibodies. The technology relies on a set of reagents for the site-specific conjugation of a linker-payload to previously reduced interchain cysteines of a native antibody.
Compared to conventional methods, McSAF Inside produces ADCs of high purity and stability and can support novel bioconjugates, based on antibody fragments or other therapeutic proteins that contain an accessible disulfide bond, according to Marie-Claude Viaud-Massuard, PhD, co-founder and CSO, McSAF.
Through the new agreements, Cristal Therapeutics and McSAF will gain access to Lonza’s integrated bioconjugates offering and will be able to leverage Lonza’s expertise in developing and manufacturing bioconjugates, explained Iwan Bertholjotti, senior director commercial development, bioconjugates, Lonza.
At the same time, the collaborations build additional capabilities into Lonza’s service portfolio, furthering the development of end-to-end bioconjugates offering that can support customers in overcoming a range of development and manufacturing challenges, noted Bertholjotti.
