- The company has advanced its VXA-222 bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (“bsADC”) program into the next stage of development following completion of the discovery phase with OmniAb.
- OmniAb delivered a portfolio of therapeutic antibody binders, with VERAXA now responsible for engineering the final bispecific ADC candidate and advancing preclinical validation.
- Although VXA-222 is not based on VERAXA’s BiTAC platform, it leverages the company’s proprietary antibody engineering, linker and conjugation technologies and represents one of its more advanced development programs.
- VERAXA recently expanded its intellectual property portfolio with its first BiTAC-related patent filings alongside additional patents supporting conjugation chemistry, payloads and antibody technologies.
- The company now holds more than 50 granted owned or exclusively licensed patents across 26 patent families in 14 countries, with newly filed applications expected to extend protection into at least 2047.
- VERAXA continues building a diversified oncology pipeline spanning bispecific antibody-drug conjugates, T-cell engagers, and engineered antibody formats targeting difficult-to-treat cancers.
VERAXA (NASDAQ: VRXA), an emerging leader in designing novel cancer therapies, has reached another development milestone in its oncology pipeline, announcing that its VXA-222 bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (“bsADC”) program has advanced beyond the discovery phase and into the next stage of development. The milestone reflects continued progress across the company’s therapeutic portfolio as it simultaneously expands the intellectual property supporting its next generation of antibody-based cancer therapies.
The announcement marks the successful completion of the discovery portion of VERAXA’s collaboration with OmniAb Inc., which began in May 2025 (https://ibn.fm/PBtmc). With the discovery work completed, VERAXA will now focus on building the final therapeutic candidate by combining the antibody binders identified through the collaboration with its own antibody engineering, linker and conjugation technologies. The company will also conduct the in vitro and in vivo validation required before further development.
The VXA-222 program is designed as a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate that uses an “AND-gate” approach to recognize two separate tumor-associated antigens simultaneously. By requiring both targets to be present before delivering its therapeutic payload, the approach is intended to improve tumor selectivity while limiting exposure to healthy tissue.
The collaboration combined complementary capabilities from both companies. OmniAb contributed its antibody discovery platform, including its OmniClic(TM) transgenic chicken technology, which is designed to generate common light-chain antibodies suitable for bispecific therapeutics. Those technologies produced a diverse collection of human antibody candidates optimized through in vivo affinity maturation.
VERAXA now assumes responsibility for transforming those antibody binders into a final therapeutic candidate. The company will apply its proprietary linker technology and conjugation methods to create the finished bispecific antibody-drug conjugate before advancing the program through preclinical evaluation.
Although VXA-222 is not built on VERAXA’s newest BiTAC technology platform, the program illustrates another dimension of the company’s development strategy. Management views VXA-222 as one of its more advanced antibody-drug conjugate programs while continuing to apply the engineering and conjugation expertise developed across its broader technology portfolio.
The company retains exclusive rights to develop and commercialize products arising from the collaboration, while OmniAb is entitled to receive a share of specified future revenues generated by products incorporating the antibodies identified through the partnership.
The latest pipeline progress comes as antibody-drug conjugates continue attracting significant investment across the biotechnology sector. These therapies combine the targeting capability of monoclonal antibodies with highly potent anti-cancer payloads, allowing drugs to be delivered more selectively to tumor cells. Bispecific formats seek to further improve precision by recognizing multiple biological targets simultaneously.
Alongside its pipeline progress, VERAXA recently provided investors with an update on another asset often viewed as equally important for emerging biotechnology companies: its intellectual property portfolio. In a separate announcement issued on July 29, the company disclosed that it had filed its first patent applications covering its newest BiTAC technology platforms, including both BiTAC-TCE and BiTAC-ADC therapeutic programs (https://ibn.fm/Fkn1I).
The new filings extend beyond individual product candidates. They encompass composition-of-matter claims, proprietary payload technologies and innovations supporting the company’s broader antibody engineering platform. Additional patents covering enabling technologies, including click chemistry and conjugation methods, have also completed their opposition periods, further strengthening the company’s intellectual property position.
According to VERAXA, the company now controls a portfolio of more than 50 granted owned or exclusively licensed patents spanning 26 patent families across 14 countries. If the recently submitted applications are ultimately granted, protection for portions of the company’s core technology suite is expected to extend through at least 2047.
The patent activity also highlights the breadth of VERAXA’s research efforts. Rather than concentrating exclusively on individual therapeutic candidates, the company is pursuing innovations across multiple components of antibody therapeutics, including molecular formats, mechanisms of action, linker chemistry, payload technologies and manufacturing approaches.
Much of that work centers on the company’s proprietary BiTAC platform, which is designed to improve tumor selectivity through dual-component molecular architectures. Unlike conventional antibody therapies that rely on a single binding event, BiTAC approaches require simultaneous recognition of two tumor-associated targets before therapeutic activity is activated.
For BiTAC-T cell engagers, this involves two separate antibody constructs that assemble into an active molecule only after binding to the same cancer cell. Within the BiTAC-ADC platform, two antibodies independently deliver inactive components that become therapeutically active only after undergoing a highly specific click-to-release chemical reaction inside targeted tumor cells.
Management believes these approaches may improve safety by reducing activity in healthy tissues while also addressing some manufacturing and stability limitations associated with earlier antibody-drug conjugate technologies.
Beyond BiTAC, VERAXA continues developing a diversified oncology pipeline that includes conventional and bispecific antibody-drug conjugates, engineered antibody formats and additional antibody-based therapeutics. Together with programs such as VXA-222, the expanding patent portfolio reflects a strategy that combines product development with continued investment in the underlying technologies supporting future candidates.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Veraxa.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to VRXA are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/VRXA
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