As per the terms of the collaboration, Adcentrx will specify the targets against which AvantGen will screen for new antibodies by making use of its yeast display system.
Besides being responsible for engineering the antibodies into ADC therapeutic candidates, Adcentrx has worldwide development and commercialisation rights.
AvantGen will be eligible to get milestone payments on the achievement of some development milestones.
Adcentrx president and CEO Hui Li said: “We are excited to enter this new partnership with AvantGen to accelerate our ADC development efforts.
“What attracted us to AvantGen initially is how their yeast display technology and human antibody libraries mimic human diversity to yield high affinity and very specific antibodies. Through our ongoing collaboration, AvantGen has demonstrated its capabilities in rapidly discovering a diverse antibody repertoire with high developability against defined targets.
“A key objective at Adcentrx, through this collaboration and opportunistic licensing activities, is to identify the best antibodies which we can leverage to assemble a pipeline of next generation ADC therapeutics.”
AvantGen president and CEO Xiaomin Fan said: “We are proud to partner with Adcentrx to help accelerate its ADC pipeline build with our robust human antibody discovery platform.
“The speed that Adcentrx is able to take lead antibody candidates to development stage with its ADC technology is truly remarkable. We believe that this new partnership will enable Adcentrx to develop the most promising next generation ADC therapeutics with our high-quality antibodies.”