
Astellas and Twist team up in antibodies; FDA asks DBV for an additional safety study in peanut allergy patch
Astellas will license Twist Bioscience’s VHH antibody libraries for five years to conduct R&D, Twist announced Thursday. The deal includes an undisclosed upfront payment as well as the possibility of annual maintenance fees, clinical and commercial milestones and royalty payments on product sales.
This is the third collaboration between the two companies.
Twist says it has a library of these VHH antibodies, also known as nanobodies or single domain antibodies, which are smaller than regular antibodies, making them better built for some diseases because they can hit targets that traditional ones can’t. The VHH antibodies can support the creation of bi- or multi-specific antibodies to develop therapies in oncology, autoimmune diseases and virology, according to Twist.
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