Aduro Biotech to buy Dutch MAb discovery firm for $32 million

US cancer immunotherapy developer Aduro Biotech (Nasdaq: ADRO) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire BioNovion Holdings, a privately held monoclonal antibody discovery and development company based in The Netherlands. Aduro’s shares rose more than 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday following the announcement.

The acquisition will further strengthen and expand Aduro's immunotherapy capabilities to now encompass monoclonal antibodies, including preclinical assets that inhibit clinically validated immune checkpoint pathways. Such immune checkpoint inhibitors could potentially be used alone or in combination with Aduro's LADD and CDN platforms to increase immunotherapy potency and durability.

In addition, BioNovion has a rich pipeline of novel preclinical monoclonal antibodies which inhibit or activate unique immune response pathways that have a role in controlling the progression of diverse malignancies. BioNovion has developed a proprietary technology to rapidly produce a broad library of therapeutic antibodies against validated targets, including PD1 and CTLA-4, as well as several undisclosed novel targets. Also, BioNovion's pipeline includes an APRIL antagonist and five bispecific antibody programs against immune-oncology targets under collaboration with Genmab using Genmab's proprietary DuoBody technology.