[caption id="attachment_9277" align="aligncenter" width="747"] Press Release[/caption] CHEYNEY, Pa.?and?SAN DIEGO,?Feb. 4, 2020?/PRNewswire/ --?Navrogen, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company specialized in developing therapies for cancer and immune-related disorders, and Levena Biopharma, a company specialized in developing antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), announced today the expanded collaboration to develop ADCs targeting humoral immuno-suppressed cancers. ADCs developed under this collaboration combine Levena's linker and cytotoxic payload chemistry expertise along with Navrogen's cancer-targeting antibodies discovered using its proprietary Humoral Immuno Oncology (HIO) platform technologies. Navrogen's antibodies are able to specifically target and combat HIO-suppressed cancers that produce?factors that dampen antibody-mediated?immune-effector activity as well as decrease ADC internalization and subsequent release of their cytotoxic payloads which is required for killing.?This collaboration will also include the use of Levena's process development and GMP capabilities. "Our collaboration with the exceptional scientists at Levena has enabled us to create a number of ADCs to specifically treat HIO-suppressed cancers," stated?Luigi Grasso, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Navrogen. "The expansion of this collaboration will enable us to proceed with their advancement towards clinical trials." Tong Zhu, Ph.D., Executive Director, Chemistry at Levena commented, "we have employed several of our technologies with the Navrogen team over the past year to identify HIO-refractory ADC formats. We look forward to continue supporting their development plans that can benefit from our expertise and technologies." About Navrogen
Navrogen^??Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery of tumor produced HIO-factors that are associated with cancer prognosis and therapeutic response of immune-mediated anti-cancer therapies. Our mission is to develop diagnostic tests that can identify patients whose tumors produce HIO-factors to advise physicians on therapeutic options as well as develop first-in-class agents that can overcome the immuno-suppressive effects of a specific HIO-factor by employing our proprietary technologies. For more information, please visit?www.navrogen.com. About Levena Biopharma,?Co., Ltd.
Levena Biopharma Co., Ltd., established in 2013, is a biotechnology company dedicated to enable novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapeutic development. The company offers partners site-specific conjugation technology (K-LOCK and C-LOCK) and novel proprietary linker toxin. Levena Biopharma currently operates in its research and manufacturing facilities in Suzhou,?Nanjing?and?San Diego?with capabilities from ADC discovery research, process/analytical development to GMP production of linker-toxin and ADC conjugate. SOURCE Navrogen, Inc.