Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. announced that a license and collaboration agreement for technology to optimise antibodies has recently been signed with Xencor Inc.

Xencor possesses a proprietary technology (XmAb) that greatly increases antibody-mediated tumour killing by changing amino-acid sequence in specific antibody molecule domains called Fc. Chugai has decided to license XmAb expecting it to increase therapeutic efficacy of cancer target antibodies as well as to enable dosage reduction for less side effects with less production cost.

Under the terms of the agreement, Chugai will apply XmAb to its proprietary antibodies to investigate the effectiveness. Also, Chugai will sign additional license agreements in the event XmAb is confirmed to be strongly effective for the given antibodies.