Doer Biologics has signed a licensing agreement with Lonza to use its XS Pichia Expression System to produce multi-specific biotherapeutics.

Under the terms of the deal, Chinese clinical-stage biopharmaceutical firm Doer will have access to Lonza’s XS technologies services for production of its proprietary MultipleBody and SMART-VHHBody platform technology.

According to contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Lonza, its XS Pichia Expression System can provide “scalable, robust, and reliable expression processes,” which will support Doer to develop Volatile Halogenated Hydrocarbons (VHH)-based biotherapeutic proteins with the aim of addressing unmet immuno-oncology needs.

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Doer says it has experienced early success with Lonza’s XS Pichia Expression System in its lab and will pursue further developments.

“Multi-specific biologics often show stronger potency, extended half-life, improved therapeutic window, and higher developability compared to single-target antibodies. However, designing and developing new multi-specific antibodies represents a central challenge for the realization of new immunotherapies,” said Yanshan Huang, founder and CEO of Doer Biologics.

“Access to Lonza’s proprietary expression technology will enable us to progress our proprietary MultipleBody and SMART-VHHBody platform by providing high-yielding processes for our candidates. We believe that we can develop high-quality VHH based multi-specific biotherapeutics in a faster and lower-cost fashion with Lonza’s XS Pichia Expression System.”

Peter Droc, head of licensing and drug product services, Lonza, said the CDMO believes the agreement will allow Doer to “further accelerate their candidates from pre-clinical study to commercial manufacturing.”

No financial details have been disclosed.