Araris Biotech AG, a spin-off company from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and ETH Zurich, is pioneering the development of a novel, proprietary antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)-linker technology. Our linker platform enables payload attachment to ‘off-the-shelf’ antibodies in one step without needing to re-engineer or reduce antibodies, resulting in highly homogenous, stable and potent ADC therapies. Learn more
ADCs consist of payloads connected to antibodies through a specific linker. The molecular design enables the highly selective delivery of any payload, often a potent anti-cancer drug, to the diseased tissue, while healthy parts of the human body are spared.
Problems of current ADC technologies:
Poor stability and high heterogeneity: Poor connection of the drug to the antibody can lead to ADC instability, allowing the drug to break apart from the antibody prior to reaching the cancerous cells. It also creates ADCs with a wide range of payloads randomly attached, or a heterogeneous ADC pool, that cannot consistently deliver the same amount of drug. Poor ADC stability ultimately increases risk of unwanted side-effects and reduces efficacy.
Limited linker solubility: Payloads are often hydrophobic and thus tend to induce ADC aggregation, or clumping together, in water-based solutions like blood. When ADCs clump together, they cannot bind to cancerous cells efficiently and have reduced efficacy.
Expensive and time intensive development: Current ADC technologies involve complex engineering efforts and multi-step conjugation procedures that take up significant time and require substantial resources.
We are pioneering a proprietary peptide linker technology that will give us the ability to design and develop homogenous, stable, highly soluble and high-quality ADC products in a cost- and time-effective manner.
Araris’ ADC technology allows for tailor-made manufacturing of safe and highly potent ADC candidates with an improved therapeutic index and the potential to make a clinically meaningful difference for patients with cancer.
Dragan is a co-founder and CEO of Araris. He has been a member of the company’s board of directors since its inception. Prior to this role, he worked as a biotech consultant, advising numerous venture capital firms and biotech companies, and served as a start-up coach for ETH Zurich and Innosuisse. From 2007 to 2014, he was the co-founder and CSO of Covagen, a Swiss biotech company that was acquired in 2014 by an affiliate of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Dragan holds a Master’s degree and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from ETH Zurich.
Philipp Spycher, Ph.D., is Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Araris Biotech and a renowned expert on bioconjugation and antibody-drug conjugate development. During his post-doctoral work at the Paul Scherrer Institute, he pioneered a novel approach of using transglutaminases for antibody conjugation, which became the foundational technology for Araris.
He served as the founding CEO of Araris from 2019 to 2023 during which the company secured $40 million in financing from investors across the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Korea, along with $2.5 million in non-dilutive financing from the Swiss Accelerator Grant. Under his scientific leadership, Araris continues to pioneer the future of ADCs and is redefining the entire paradigm of targeted cancer therapy and beyond with its own unique pipeline as well as partnerships with Taiho Oncology and Chugai Pharmaceutical.
Philipp holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. from ETH Zurich with a focus on material science and protein engineering.
Isabella holds a Master’s Degree in Molecular Biology from University of Basel and obtained a PhD in Tumorimmunology from University of Zurich (UZH). Before joining Araris, she served as Director Pharmacology at Covagen, a Swiss Biotech that was acquired in 2014 by Cilag GmbH International, an affiliate of the Janssen Pharmaceutical companies of Johnson & Johnson. She was in charge of the pharmacological characterization of various FynomAbs during pre-clinical development that entered clinical testing. With an experience of more than 15 years in biotech, she has been essential in developing the company and guiding the Araris R&D team to build the next generation of differentiated and highly efficacious ADC pipeline including partnerships with Taiho Oncology and Chugai Pharmaceutical.
Bernd received his Master’s Degree from University of Surrey, Guildford, UK in applied toxicology and his PhD in Immunology from University of Würzburg (Germany). Prior to joining Araris, Bernd worked as Vice President Oncology Research at Molecular Partners AG. Before that he worked at Janssen/Covagen AG, Merck Serono as well as at Micromet. In these positions he was responsible for the Discovery, Pharmacology, Toxicology and DMPK activities in close collaboration with CMC, Clinical Development as well as Regulatory Affairs ensuring smooth and successful project transitions from research into early and late-stage clinical development. Bernd has in-depth experience in targeted cancer therapy and the development of novel immuno-oncology modalities (e.g. blinatumomab).
Filippo holds a MSc in Chemistry from University of Turin in Italy, a PhD in Sciences from the School of Pharmacy of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and a MBA in Business Administration from St. Gallen University - HSG in Switzerland. Filippo initiated his research career in pharmaceutical science at Serono SA. Later, after his MBA, he moved into Business Development where he spent over 10 years before joining Araris. Filippo held various roles in BD&L in small and large organizations such as Roche, Basilea Pharmaceutica and Philogen. In these positions he was responsible for business development activities including in- and out-licensing of both technology platforms and pharmaceutical assets, business case preparation, NPV calculation, term sheet and contract negotiation, and alliance management.
Atsushi joined Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in 1997 and was appointed Executive Director of the company in March 2021.
He has been involved in business development at Taiho Pharmaceutical for many years, building and maintaining alliances with other companies through a number of commercial transactions. Over the course of building these important alliances, he has always valued the pursuit of “drugs whose therapeutic effects make them truly meaningful” – the kind of drugs that bring smiles to the faces of patients and their families, treatments that anyone would hope to have access to when a family member or friend is suffering from disease.
As Chairman of the Board of Araris Biotech, a wholly owned subsidiary of Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Atsushi is responsible for making decisions on management policies and developing strategies to advance the company’s interests in the ADC field. Going forward, he hopes to establish jointly a strong Taiho ADC pipeline using the AraLinQ™ technology and expertise at Araris Biotech in Switzerland.
Takeshi joined Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in 2009 and was appointed Executive Director of the company in March 2023. Since joining Taiho, he has led drug discovery research and established the Cysteinomix platform—an innovative technology for generating covalent-binding drugs. This platform has successfully produced multiple pipeline candidates, including futibatinib, the world's first covalent-binding FGFR inhibitor to obtain regulatory approval. Prior to joining Taiho, Takeshi led technology-driven drug discovery efforts at Banyu Pharmaceutical, a former subsidiary of Merck & Co., where he contributed to advancing novel therapeutic approaches.
As a member of the Board of Araris Biotech AG, a wholly owned subsidiary of Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Takeshi supports Araris’ R&D initiatives as part of Taiho’s global commitment to delivering innovative oncology products. Looking ahead, he aims to jointly establish a robust ADC pipeline by leveraging the proprietary AraLinQ™ technology and the scientific expertise of Araris Biotech AG in Switzerland.
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Chugai and Araris Biotech AG Enter License Agreement for Araris' Linker-Payload ADC Technology AraLinQ®.
Building on our early 2025 collaboration, we’re developing highly differentiated, multi-payload ADCs that could redefine oncology treatment. Seeing our platform validated by a global leader is a proud moment, and just the beginning.
We are excited to announce a research agreement with Johnson & Johnson to develop next-generation anti-drug conjugates (ADCs) using our AraLinQ™ technology. With enhanced safety and antitumor effects demonstrated in preclinical studies, this new agreement represents a further step to establish our AraLinQ™ technology as the gold standard for ADC development.
We are happy to share that a peer-reviewed scientific article on data generated using our AraLinQ platform have been published today: Araris anti-CD79b ADC demonstrated enhanced stability, reduced toxicity and greater anti-tumor efficacy preclinically compared to commercial polatuzumab vedotin in head-to-head studies validates company’s foundational linker-conjugation platform that generates ADCs in one step from native antibodies with potential to transform any antibody into an ADC. Article available online.
Araris is very pleased to announce that Taiho Pharmaceutical has entered into an agreement where Taiho will fully acquire Araris. From starting as a spin-off company from the Paul-Scherrer-Institute and ETH Zurich, with Co-founders Philipp Spycher and Isabella Attinger-Toller and Dragan Grabulovski, Araris has reached a significant milestone in pioneering the future of ADCs through our revolutionary AraLinQTM technology.
We are very excited to announce a major research collaboration and option to license agreement with Chugai Pharmaceutical! We will use our revolutionary AraLinQTM linker-conjugation platform to generate novel ADCs using antibodies against targets provided by Chugai. This collaboration validates our platform's ability to create ADCs with a highly scalable one-step enzymatic conjugation that provides unmatched precision and efficiency, potentially reducing costs and accelerating development timelines
We are pleased to announce our latest publication in ChemBioChe describing a new technology for developing ADCs that supports our foundational technology platform
Today, we are excited to announce that we acquired Innate’s portfolio of transglutaminase related patents. This transaction further positions Araris as a leader in the development of ADCs using transglutaminase conjugation technology!
We’ve appointed Ulf Grawunder, Ph.D. to our scientific advisory board. His experience in the ADC space will be instrumental as we continue to innovate our proprietary ADC technology and develop our pipeline of next-generation ADC therapies.
Today we announced our research collaboration with Taiho Pharmaceutical Col, Ltd for the development of next-generation ADCs using our innovative linker-conjugation platform.
Today we announced a leadership transition to advance the next evolution of our ADC pipeline. Dragan Grabulovski, Ph.D. has been appointed acting chief executive officer and Philipp Spycher, Ph.D., will transition to chief scientific officer.
We’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired ARS Pharmaceuticals’ Nectin-4 antibody. The antibody will be used in the development of a differentiated Nectin-4 ADC, using our proprietary LinkerTechnology, as we broaden our ADC pipeline.
We’re pleased to announce Samsung Ventures has made a strategic investment in Araris. These proceeds will be used to further support the development and advancement of our antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates.
Our CEO, Philipp Spycher, Ph.D. and CTO, Isabella Attinger-Toller, Ph.D. will be presenting two late-breaking abstracts at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Be sure to stop by our posters on April 18 from 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
Our Associate Director of ADC Chemistry, Romain Bertrand, Ph.D., will be presenting tomorrow at PEGSEurope in Barcelona. He’ll be presenting preclinical data on our Nectin-4 ADC developed using our proprietary LinkerTechnology. Learn more here: https://www.pegsummiteurope.com/
We’re pleased to announce we’re presenting preclinical data on our anti-CD79b ADC and late-breaking data on an anti-Nectin-4 ADC developed using our proprietary linker technology at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference.
Visit us at 12th Annual World ADC London 2022: Poster on "Broadening the therapeutic index of antibody-drug conjugates using Araris peptide linkers for site-specific bioconjugation,” will be given on March 30, 2022, at 2:15 p.m. GMT during the conference’s scientific poster session.
We’re excited to announce we’re expanding our Scientific Advisory Board with the appointment of Dr. Jeff Sharman and Dr. Clive Stanway. The two leaders in the field of cancer therapeutics will provide expert support and guidance as we continue preclinical and clinical development of our Antibody Drug Conjugates.
We are very pleased to announce that Araris again ranks among the TOP15 Swiss startups in 2021 after positions 13 in 2020 and 95 in 2019. This is again a great achievement for our company - thanks jury for voting for us! Thank you Araris Team for your hard work!
The winners will be selected on October 12th 2021 during the World ADC Awards Ceremony. Thanks to our supporters for your vote!
Really happy about being listed among so many great companies in Switzerland in Labbiotech.eu.
We are very excited to announce that Araris Biotech AG has appointed Dr. Bernd Schlereth as Chief Development Officer. A warm welcome to the team, Bernd, we are very happy to have you on board!
Very interesting article highlighting the versatility of microbial transglutaminase (MTG) and its use to generate site-specific ADCs
Read about the main issues of the first, second, and third generations of ADCs in the MedNous article below and how we at Araris Biotech AG challenge them.
The new funds will be used to nominate a clinical candidate and advance Araris’ lead programs into preclinical and clinical development, as well as to support the development of a broad proprietary pipeline of ADC compounds.
The investment round is led by: Pureos Bioventures with new investors 4-BIO Capital and btov Partners and existing investors Redalpine, VI Partners and Schroder Adveq.
Araris ranks among the TOP15 Swiss startups in 2020. This is a great achievement for our young company - thanks jury for voting for us! Rank 95 in 2019, Rank 13 in 2020. Thank you Araris Team for your hard work.
Fun insights about our CEO and the Araris Crew...
Pitch session organized by the American Embassy. A great opportunity to present, thanks Venturelab and Ambassador McMullen for the organization.
We are very proud to be chosen among 60 high quality applicants and are looking forward to the experience and learing on the roadshow in Boston.
Congratulations, Isabella!
Zedira published a high level summary on the core of the Araris Linker Technology.
Araris Biotech AG announced today the appointment of Dr. Rakesh Dixit, Dr. John Lambert and Dr. L. Nathan Tumey as members of its Scientific Advisory Board.
Araris announces closing of CHF2.5M seed financing round with participation of Swiss investors Redalpine, Schroder Adveq and VI Partners.
The Venture Kick jury awards MOBBOT and Araris Biotech 130,000 francs each to accelerate the engineering startup and drug-discovery spin-off's speed-to-market. The Swiss startups’ innovations in material science and biotech will benefit the construction and pharmaceutical industries.
Araris Biotech AG announces its incorporation on January 31st 2019.
