Twist Bioscience Enters into Research, Exclusive Option and License Agreement with Astellas for Antibodies to Reduce Tumor Microenvironment-Mediated Immunosuppression

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced it has entered into a research collaboration and exclusive option license agreement with Astellas Pharma Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will jointly conduct research activities to identify and optimize proprietary Twist antagonist antibodies, targeting an undisclosed checkpoint inhibitor pathway in the tumor microenvironment (TME), as potential therapeutic development candidates. Ligands in this pathway are found in relatively high concentrations in the tumor microenvironment. Blocking the receptor’s activation has the potential to markedly enhance anti-tumor immunity with other Astellas therapies including chimeric antigen receptor-based (CAR) technologies combined with Universal Donor Cells. Astellas will have the exclusive option to license any development candidates generated as part of the collaboration.