30 June 2022 - - US-based synthetic DNA provider Twist Bioscience Corp. (NASDAQ: TWST) and South Korean pharmaceutical company Ildong Pharmaceutical have inked an agreement under which Ildong will license a suite of Twist VHH antibody libraries to use to discover and develop antibodies for applications in immuno-oncology, the companies said.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ildong will license a suite of Twist's VHH libraries for a period of three years and will use the libraries to conduct research and development activities.

Twist will receive an upfront payment, annual maintenance fees and additional payments for success-based clinical and regulatory milestones as well as royalties on product sales.

Antibodies contain two variable domains, the heavy and the light chains. A VHH antibody, also known as a single domain antibody, is the antigen binding domain of the heavy chain, with three complementary determining regions, or areas where antigens bind to the antibody.

Twist's VHH libraries use novel methods that combine synthetic and natural approaches to maximize diversity in the 10bn antibody library, creating high quality VHH libraries for use against any protein target.

The small size of the VHH antibodies allow them to access targets that traditional antibodies cannot, with tight binding affinity.

The modular nature of VHH antibodies supports creation of bi- or multi-specific antibodies ideal for developing next generation therapies specific to oncology, autoimmune disease and virology.