Taiho Oncology, Inc., Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Araris Biotech AG (“Araris”) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its Investigational New Drug (IND) review period for ARC-02, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) being developed for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, enabling Taiho Oncology to initiate a Phase 1 dose-escalation clinical trial of ARC-02.

Taiho Pharmaceutical acquired Araris Biotech in March 2025, expanding Taiho group’s capabilities in biologics and ADC research and development. Araris is a spin-off of the Paul Scherrer Institute and ETH in Switzerland focused on the development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Central to Araris’ approach is its proprietary AraLinQ™ ADC technology, which enables the creation of stable and site-specific ADCs using standard antibodies with scalable manufacturing processes. ARC-02 is a CD79b-protein-targeting ADC based on Araris' proprietary AraLinQ^TM technology using monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) as payload, designed for selective targeting and killing of B-cell malignancies.

The trial represents the first clinical trial of a product candidate developed using the AraLinQ™ ADC technology and marks Taiho’s expansion into the clinical development of ADCs for oncology.

“Advancing our first ADC into the clinic represents an important milestone for our pipeline and reflects the continued expansion of Taiho group’s oncology development capabilities,” said Fabio Benedetti, MD, Global Chief Medical Officer, Taiho Pharmaceutical. “This initial clinical study will allow us to evaluate ARC-02 in patients and generate data to inform both the continued development of ARC-02 and our ADC platform. We look forward to advancing this program as part of our broader efforts to deliver innovative therapies to people living with cancer.”