Ardigen partners with VERAXA on AI for cancer drug discovery

Ardigen and VERAXA Biotech are teaming up to use AI and computational biology to improve target-pair selection for VERAXA’s BiTAC cancer therapies. The collaboration is aimed at speeding development of conditionally active T cell engagers and ADCs while reducing toxicity risk.

Why it matters: - The collaboration is designed to improve how VERAXA selects cancer target pairs for therapies that need to hit tumor cells without harming healthy tissue. - Better target selection could widen the therapeutic window for T cell engagers and antibody-drug conjugates, two drug classes often limited by off-tumor toxicity. - The work could help VERAXA advance its BiTAC pipeline with more precise therapeutic design and fewer late-stage failures.

What happened: - Ardigen S.A. announced a collaboration with VERAXA Biotech AG on July 13, 2026. - The partnership focuses on advancing VERAXA’s growing BiTAC® pipeline of T cell engagers and antibody-drug conjugates. - Ardigen will develop AI-enabled tools and models to help identify synergistic cancer target pairs for VERAXA’s BiTAC platform. - VERAXA said the collaboration is a strategic step to help bring precision oncology therapies to patients faster.

The details: - Ardigen will contribute expertise in computational biology, machine learning, bioinformatics and scalable data systems. - Ardigen brings 11 years of experience in those areas to the collaboration. - The companies plan to use AI to integrate and interpret complex biomedical data for therapeutic design. - VERAXA’s BiTAC-TCEs and future BiTAC-ADCs use Boolean “AND-gate” logic. - The BiTAC approach requires co-expression of two distinct targets on the same cancer cell for activation. - VERAXA says that design could spare healthy tissues and reduce systemic toxicity. - VERAXA aims to use preclinical and clinical data already generated across the industry, including data from programs that had promising efficacy but were limited by toxicity. - AI-enabled analysis is intended to help identify improved dual-target combinations, refine therapeutic design and test target-pair hypotheses more precisely. - Michał Warchoł, Ardigen’s CTO, said the collaboration will apply Ardigen’s AI, bioinformatics and computational biology solutions to improve target-pair selection. - Christoph Antz, VERAXA’s CEO and co-founder, said smart cancer target selection and thorough validation from the outset can have a major impact on future success rates and product profiles.

Between the lines: - The deal reflects a broader push in drug discovery to use AI earlier in the pipeline, before expensive experimental work narrows the field. - VERAXA’s focus on dual-target logic signals an effort to solve a common problem in potent cancer drugs: efficacy often rises as safety becomes harder to manage. - Ardigen’s role suggests VERAXA wants outside computational support, not just internal modeling, to strengthen decision-making around complex target biology.

What's next: - Ardigen and VERAXA will build AI tools and models for target-pair selection within the BiTAC platform. - The companies will use integrated biomedical data to evaluate dual-target hypotheses and refine candidate selection. - VERAXA said the collaboration should help guide the development strategy for its proprietary BiTAC programs. - Ardigen’s website is here and VERAXA’s website is here.