ADC linkers get site-specific

Much of the next wave of ADC innovation is focused on linker and conjugation technologies, with site-specific conjugation emerging as a key determinant of ADC performance. After years in which developers had few practical options for controlling where linker-payloads attach, the toolbox is beginning to diversify.

Random or stochastic conjugation, historically the dominant approach, attaches linker-payloads to naturally available lysines or cysteines, producing heterogeneous mixtures of ADCs with different drug-antibody ratios (DARs) at varying attachment sites...