VERAXA Biotech to Launch AI-enabled Drug Discovery Collaboration with Ardigen to Support Growing BiTAC® Pipeline
Ardigen platform supports VERAXA’s in-house AI capabilities to optimize cancer target pair selection for conditionally active t cell engagers (TCEs) and antibody drug conjugates (ADCs)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – July 13, 2026 — VERAXA Biotech AG (NASDAQ: VRXA; “VERAXA”), an emerging leader in designing novel cancer therapies, today announced a collaboration with Ardigen S.A., an AI-driven computational partner for modern R&D recognized for pioneering the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and bioinformatics for precision medicine, to support VERAXA’s growing BiTAC® pipeline of t cell engagers (TCEs) and antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). The collaboration is another milestone in VEREXA’s mission to integrate AI into its research and development, with the long-term goal to achieve success rates in drug development that exceed industry benchmarks.
Current high-potency modalities, including TCEs and ADCs, are frequently limited by severe on-target, off-tumor toxicities, restricting therapeutic efficacy and leading to high failure rates in development. VERAXA’s BiTAC-TCEs and future BiTAC-ADCs utilize a Boolean “AND-gate” logic, requiring the co-expression of two distinct targets on the same cancer cell for activation. This innovative approach has the potential to significantly widen the therapeutic window by sparing healthy tissues and even systemic toxicity.
With the BiTAC platform, VERAXA believes that it can leverage the extensive body of existing preclinical and clinical data generated across the industry, particularly from programs that failed due to toxicity despite demonstrating promising efficacy. AI could enable the integration and analysis of such large datasets to identify improved dual-target combinations, refine therapeutic design, and potentially rescue previously challenging or “undruggable” targets. The partnership with Ardigen will initially focus on developing AI-enabled tools and models to guide the selection process of synergistic cancer target pairs for VERAXA’s growing BiTAC portfolio.
“We see enormous potential in the application of AI processes to help guide the development strategy of our proprietary BiTAC programs,” commented Christoph Antz, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of VERAXA. “Because of the nature of BiTACs, smart cancer target selection and thorough validation from the outset can have a transformative impact on future success rates and product profiles. This collaboration represents a strategic step forward in harnessing the power of AI to bring precision oncology therapies to patients faster.”
About VERAXA Biotech AG (NASDAQ: VRXA)
At VERAXA, we are building a premier engine for the discovery and development of next-generation antibody-based therapeutics, including bispecific T cell engagers, bispecific ADCs and other innovative formats. Powered by a suite of transformative technologies and guided by rigorous quality-by-design principles, we are rapidly advancing our pipeline of ADCs and proprietary BiTAC formats into clinical development and beyond. VERAXA was founded on scientific breakthroughs made at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), a world-renowned institution known for pioneering life science research and cutting-edge technology.
For regular updates about VERAXA Biotech, visit https://investors.veraxa.com/ or follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly known as Twitter) and Bluesky.
BiTAC® is a registered trademark of VERAXA Biotech GmbH.
About Ardigen
Ardigen is an AI-driven computational partner for modern R&D, working with biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations to advance data- and AI-enabled drug discovery. The company guides life science teams across the data-to-discovery journey by transforming fragmented, multimodal biomedical data into governed, interpretable, and scalable systems designed to enable earlier, better-informed decisions. With a modular framework and experience across more than 700 discovery projects, Ardigen is trusted by leading biopharma and biotech innovators to build scalable discovery capabilities and strengthen R&D decision-making over time. For more information, please visit: https://ardigen.com
