On October 30, 2025 Debiopharm (www.debiopharm.com), a privately-owned, Swiss-based, biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative therapies that respond to high unmet medical needs, reported a strategic research collaboration with NetTargets (www.net-targets.com), a South Korean biotech company specializing in AI-enhanced systems biology for drug discovery, to rationally design and advance the discovery of novel, synergistic drug combinations for Debiopharm’s next-generation Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs). This alliance unites NetTargets’ sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) platform with Debiopharm’s proprietary MLINK technology to create a new paradigm in cancer treatment, aiming to deliver a decisive, dual-action blow against treatment-resistant tumors.
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This collaboration achieves this multi-pronged strategy by uniting two cutting-edge technologies: NetTargets’ AI-Powered Discovery Engine and Debiopharm’s MLINK Duo Technology. NetTargets’ proprietary AI platform integrates multi-omics data with deep neural network modeling to uncover synergistic mechanisms and accelerate drug discovery. It sifts through millions of potential compound combinations to identify synergistic pairings—"one-two punches"—that are significantly more potent together than the sum of their individual effects. These AI-identified payloads will then be integrated into Debiopharm’s innovative ADC technologies using MLINK Duo, a proprietary linker engineered specifically to carry two distinct payloads on a single antibody. This precision bio-engineering ensures the coordinated delivery and release of both warheads directly inside the cancer cell, maximizing their synergistic impact while minimizing systemic toxicity. This combination of AI-driven discovery and precision bio-engineering promises to produce a pipeline of dual-payload ADCs with a higher probability of clinical success against the most challenging cancers.
"To address the fundamental challenge of therapeutic resistance, we are moving beyond single-agent attacks," explained Frédéric Lévy, Chief Scientific Officer at Debiopharm. "Our collaboration with NetTargets is about creating smarter and more precise therapies. We are using their powerful AI to find synergistic drug combinations for our ADC platforms, which allows us to rationally design therapies that are more effective. By attacking cancer on multiple fronts simultaneously, we not only increase the immediate efficacy of the treatment but also strategically minimize the cancer’s chances to adapt and develop resistance."
Debiopharm is advancing its ADC platform with a focus on proprietary bispecific ADCs and innovative payloads. By leveraging its proven drug development expertise, the company aims to accelerate next-generation ADC therapies to patients, addressing critical unmet medical needs.
"Our AI models are built to understand the complex biological networks that drive cancer," commented Dr. Je-Hoon Song, CEO of NetTargets. "By simulating how different drug mechanisms interact, we can pinpoint unique vulnerabilities that would be impossible to find through traditional screening. Partnering with Debiopharm, a leader in ADC technology, allows us to translate these digital discoveries into tangible, life-saving therapies."
MLINK Duo
MLINK Duo is a cleavable linker (part of the proprietary MultiLINK ADC Technology Suite – a modular, peptide-based, cathepsin B-cleavable linker platform) tailored for simultaneous attachment of two distinct payloads on a single antibody. MLINK Duo supports the production of ADCs with a high drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) up to DAR8+8 and is compatible with various conjugation technologies. This unique and innovative technology ensures the coordinated delivery and release of both warheads directly inside the cancer cell, maximizing their synergistic impact while minimizing systemic toxicity, making it ideally suited for the AI-identified synergistic combinations.
(Press release, Debiopharm, OCT 30, 2025, View Source [SID1234657181])