Under the deal, Lonza will grant Engitix a single-target ADC license for SYNtecan E, GlycoConnect, and HydraSpace to advance ECM-targeted fibrosis and cancer therapies.
Lonza and Engitix Ltd today announced a
Under the single-target license, Engitix will gain access to Lonza's SYNtecan E linker-payload technology along with the complementary GlycoConnect® conjugation and HydraSpace polar spacer technologies.¹ "We are pleased to collaborate with Engitix on this innovative program," said
Lonza, through an affiliated company, is eligible to receive upfront, clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments plus royalties on net sales of any resulting products. Lonza will
The deal is part of a broader pattern of target-specific licensing agreements Lonza has signed in 2026 for its GlycoConnect, HydraSpace, and SYNtecan-based linker-payload technologies, which use native antibody glycans for site-specific, homogeneous conjugation.² GlycoConnect and HydraSpace are designed to improve ADC solubility, stability, and therapeutic index compared with conventional conjugation approaches. Lonza acquired the underlying site-specific conjugation technology through its 2023 purchase of Synaffix.²
Engitix has developed a proprietary human ECM platform that allows the study of disease biology directly in human tissue, focusing on targets within the ECM itself rather than the cell-surface targets that most ADC programs pursue. Founded in 2016 to commercialize research from University College London's Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, the company has built its discovery engine around one of the largest ECM bioarchives in the field, paired with 3D human tissue models and a proprietary bioinformatics platform, to identify targets and biomarkers relevant to fibrosis and solid tumors.³
Under the new agreement, Engitix aims to combine that discovery capability with Lonza's platform to develop therapeutic candidates designed to selectively deliver potent payloads to tumor-selective targets identified through its ECM discovery work.¹
"At Engitix, we are committed to translating our unique understanding of the disease microenvironment into transformative therapies for patients with high unmet medical need," said
The companies did not disclose the specific target, deal value, or an anticipated development timeline. The agreement is described as one step in Engitix's broader strategy to build a diversified pipeline of precision therapeutics addressing fibrosis, oncology, and other diseases driven by pathological tissue remodeling.¹ Engitix has previously partnered with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company on fibrotic liver and bowel disease programs and with Dompé farmaceutici on an AI-integrated discovery collaboration, though neither program is directly tied to today's announcement.³
